Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk has been Prime Minister of Poland twice — from 2007 to 2014 and again since December 2023 — and was President of the European Council in between. Born in Gdańsk in 1957 into a Kashubian family, he studied history at the University of Gdańsk and was active in the student opposition, joining the Solidarity movement and working as a manual labourer, including painting chimneys, after martial law was declared in 1981. He co-founded the liberal Civic Platform in 2001 and lost the 2005 presidential race to Lech Kaczyński. He won the 2007 election, and in 2011 became the first Polish prime minister since 1989 to be re-elected. His governments oversaw the only EU economy to avoid recession in 2009, absorbed large structural funds, and co-hosted the 2012 European Championship. The Smolensk air crash in April 2010 killed President Lech Kaczyński and ninety-five others en route to a Katyn commemoration. Jarosław Kaczyński, the president's twin, has since accused Tusk of responsibility, and the resulting enmity has structured Polish politics ever since. He was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019, handling the Greek debt crisis, the migration emergency of 2015 and the Brexit negotiations, in which he was a blunt public critic of the British position. He returned to Polish politics in 2021 to lead the opposition against Law and Justice. The October 2023 election gave his coalition a parliamentary majority on a record turnout, and he took office pledging to restore judicial independence, unlock frozen EU funds and liberalise abortion law — the last blocked by a hostile presidency, and the first proving slower than promised.
- Lived: 1957 CE – ?
- Nationality: Polish
- Roles: Prime Minister of Poland (2007-2014), Prime Minister of Poland (2023-present)
