Poland: one year of the Tusk government
When Donald Tusk came to power at the head of a politically heterogeneous three-way coalition in December 2023, expectations were high after eight years of the right-wing conservative PiS government. One year later, disillusionment is spreading. One reason for this is the government's ongoing conflict with President Andrzej Duda, who is close to the PiS. The Polish press takes stock.
Ousted PiS deeply entrenched
The previous government is mainly to blame for the present government's difficult start, journalist Roman Imielski writes in Gazeta Wyborcza:
“Eight years of rule by [PiS leader] Jarosław Kaczyński's team trashed our democracy and Poland's position on the international stage. The interests of the party and its cronies, who have colonised our country, were at the forefront. The result is a still well-entrenched 'deep state' with tens of thousands of PiS appointees in public institutions and state-owned companies. ... I am writing about this so that we don't forget what the ruling coalition has had to deal with. It is trying to focus on the citizens' key problems, although it itself is also highly heterogeneous – spanning the left to the staunchly conservative PSL.”
Division is counterproductive
Tygodnik Powszechny criticises the government's confrontational course vis-à-vis President Andrzej Duda:
“The decisive factor in assessing the Tusk government is its 'belligerent' stance. It was clear from the outset that the government would cohabit with the PiS president, Andrzej Duda, for more than a year and a half. ... From the point of view of efficiency, it would therefore have been a much better tactic to negotiate with the head of state. Instead, however, a logic of action was chosen according to which Duda is treated as an enemy.”
Citizens slowly coming to their senses
The right-wing conservative website wPolityce.pl observes a massive drop in the government's popularity:
“The first year of Tusk's government has been mainly characterised by legal arbitrariness and breaches of election promises. ... According to the polls, despite the government's attempts to destroy the [opposition] PiS - including depriving it of state funding - voter approval for it is often higher than for [Tusk's] Civic Platform party. And when asked under which government Poles had a better quality of life, almost 40 percent of respondents said under the government of [Mateusz] Morawiecki [PiS; until 2023] compared to just over 30 percent for the Tusk government. It seems that after only one year of Donald Tusk's government, Poles are slowly but surely coming to their senses.”