Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has issued a stark warning ahead of European elections, urging citizens to vote to avoid a potential war, Polish media reported.
Thousands of supporters of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gathered in Warsaw on Tuesday ahead of European elections that the prime minister said were crucial to the security of Poland, which faces rising tensions on its eastern border.
Amid the war in Ukraine and the migrant crisis on the border with Belarus, Tusk defined Poland’s June 9 vote as a choice between a secure future in a country at the heart of the European Union (EU) and a more dangerous one if the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, known for its conflicts with Brussels, wins. Tusk told the crowd in Warsaw’s Castle Square:
We are all focused every day … on making Poland strong, making Europe strong, Poles being united and Europe being united, because this is the only way to avoid the drama of war here on our lands.
The rally was held on the 35th anniversary of Poland’s first post-war democratic elections.
Tusk’s coalition
Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) is the largest in the pro-European alliance that came to power in December. However, PiS will remain the single party with the most seats in Poland’s parliament after the 2023 general election, extending a decade-long streak of first-place finishes.
Analysts suggest that if KO wins the most EU seats for Poland, the result will bolster Tusk’s hopes of establishing the coalition as the sole dominant force in Polish politics.
PiS argues that Tusk, a former European Council president, is subservient to Poland’s larger neighbour Germany, and also accuses him of hypocrisy for criticising PiS’s tough policy on migrants on the border with Belarus when he was in opposition and then taking similar measures in government. PiS legislator Jacek Sasin said in a post on social media platform X about the Warsaw rally:
Propaganda rallies, vindictiveness, blunt manipulation as the only fuel. It’s Tusk’s June 4th.
EU citizens will vote on June 6-9 to choose the 720 members of the next European Parliament, which will serve for five years. Meanwhile, polls show that the main pro-European groups in the political centre will get a smaller majority than they have now.
