Donald Tusk
Polish Premier Donald Tusk Will Not Run For Presidency Of Poland.
Warsaw, Poland 29 January 2010 - An announcement by Polish Premier Donald Tusk, made during a press conference at the Warsaw Stock Exchange with a map of Europe in the background marking Poland the only EU country with growth GDP, that he won’t be in the running for President of Poland, came as a shock to both the Polish political community and society at large.
“The decision I made today required courage,” the Premier said.
Tusk emphasized that he must remain in the party to continue to lead them from one success to another.
“I want to take upon myself responsibility for what is happening in Poland and not for what is happening with my career”.
There is a lot of speculation over the cause for this decision.
Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) candidate Jerzy Szmajdzinski said the Premier finished his two year presidential campaign and was going to start governing the country.
While Secretary of State from the Chancellery of the President of Poland Pawel Wypych said the announcement is a smoke screen to distract public attention from the party’s internal problems.
“This explains PO’s situation. Regardless of the election result Tusk couldn’t continue to lead PO. It now has internal problems, many politicians face the court of inquiry,” Mr Wypych said.
“Until [PO’s national congress on] 16th of May there will be a procession of candidates and new media revelations every day and no one will be asking about waiting lists in the health care system, the state of the economy, the finances of local governments.”
Mr Wypych said this isn’t the last we’ll hear of Tusk on this matter.
“Politicians never say never,” he warned.
Others said the Premier ran scared in fear of a repeat of the 2005 election.
In 2005 Donald Tusk faced Lech Kaczynski in presidential elections and even beat him in first round results. But despite being a sure thing in the polls he lost by some 4 per cent.
But the Premier remains confident.
“ I think I would have won the Presidential election,” he said.
“But I prefer government to the [Presidential] Palace.”
“There’s two of them [Kaczynski brothers] and only one of me, and I’ll never have a twin. But I have certain tools that are required for effective government. And that power, those tools, don’t exist in the Palace, those opportunities don’t come with the presidency.”
“My today’s decision is surely a surprise for my opponents, but not a good one,” he said.
“I am following a consistent plan thanks to which PiS will not return to power.”
The decision was approved by most and respected by all his fellow party members.
“I don’t know of a situation where a leader who, having the highest office in the nation within reach would sacrifice his personal ambitions in the name of the mission of modernizing the country,” Minister for Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski said.
“Donald Tusk has shown his responsibility and patriotism are of the highest quality. I am proud to be a member of his team.”
Sikorski is now a definite favourite for the top job with majority support in internet polls and on forums and with the support of 17 per cent of some 500 representative voting citizens in a MillwardBrown telephone survey.
The favourite in the MillwardBrown Poll, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, had 19 per cent support, but in approving of the Premier’s decision he said he too won’t be in the running for President.
“In my opinion, the Premier made the natural and right decision to remain Premier and not stand for Presidential election just as I made the completely natural decision to remain president of the European Parliament,” Mr Buzek said.
The Polish people “elected me to the EP for five years and not to change my mind after 6 months,” he said.
The current President was on delegation all day was unprepared to comment the revelations.
“It is his decision. I respect it. I have nothing more to add on the matter,” the President said.
He didn’t confirm or deny his own candidature in the upcoming elections, much less comment on who he now considered to be his main threat.
But PO politicians said anyone they put forward has strong chance of taking down the President.
“This is a party that has a lot of support and anyone who starts from the party ranks has huge chances of becoming president,” Mr Buzek said.
Premier Tusk said presidential elections are not a fashion show.
“People work on their potential candidature over many years and if names like Buzek, Sikorski, Bielecki, Komorowski come up, it just shows the rich diversity which is a chance for PO,” he said.
In terms of a presidential nomination, “a decision should be announced in a matter of days, at most weeks, definitely not months,” he said.
The favorites in the forums are Radoslaw Sikorski followed by Jerzy Buzek and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, while survey results show Buzek in first, with Sikorski and Cimoszewicz close behind and Warsaw President Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz with only 9 per cent. Almost a quarter of the representative population surveyed doesn’t know who they want to see in the top job.
By Victoria Ziarkowski
Freelance Writer
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