Tusk to battle for Poland’s European future

Bloomberg

Donald Tusk is spoiling for a fight to reverse Poland’s drift to the European Union’s fringe. The former president of the European Council announced on Saturday that he’s returning to lead his country’ biggest opposition group, the Civic Platform, which propelled him to two terms as prime minister and the top level of politics on the continent.
The decision puts Tusk on a collision course with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose nationalist ruling Law & Justice Party has since 2015 transformed Poland into an EU rogue state that has been repeatedly sued for eroding democratic standards.
In what’s increasingly looking like a final duel between arch-nemeses in a rivalry that goes back almost two decades, the clash could determine whether the EU’s biggest eastern member steers back into the bloc’s mainstream or continues to follow Hungary of Prime Minister Viktor Orban down the path toward authoritarianism. “I’m back 100%,” Tusk told a party conference in Warsaw. “I’m back to end this nightmare” and “bring back faith in winning.”
Tusk’s return to Polish politics — he now leads the European People’s Party in Brussels — comes as Law & Justice’s grip on power looks particularly vulnerable, with its ruling coalition riven by conflict and defections that have eaten away at its slim parliamentary majority.
A new generation of opposition leaders, including his fellow Civic Platform members and the increasingly popular upstart party of former Got Talent! host Szymon Holownia, remain skeptical.