Tusk's tough week
Eastern approaches 2014-06-27
Summary:
DONALD TUSK, Poland's prime minister, is hanging on to power despite the damage inflicted by a spate of illegally recorded dinner conversations between ministers and other top officials, which have been splashed in newspapers around the world. Mr Tusk wrong-footed the opposition earlier this week, which had been baying for ministerial heads and for the formation of a technocratic government to rule the country until next year's elections.
On June 25th Mr Tusk (pictured during the vote) asked for a vote of confidence in his government. His Civic Platform party and their junior coalition partners from the Polish People's Party control a majority in parliament, so it was not much of a surprise that he easily won.
The opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) is going through the motions of proposing an alternative to Mr Tusk. Their candidate is Piotr Glinski, an unassuming sociology professor whom the leader of Law and Justice, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had already suggested for prime minster, president and mayor of Warsaw in the past.
PiS is finding little support from other opposition parties and it has less than...Continue reading