FT report on Tusk rival candidate is ‘speculation’: Polish official
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
28.02.2017 10:21
A senior Polish official has said she cannot confirm a Financial Times report that Warsaw has floated a plan to replace Donald Tusk as European Council president with another candidate.
Donald Tusk. Photo: Twitter.com/eucopresident
The British daily reported that Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło has sounded out other EU member states over a proposal to replace former Polish PM Tusk with Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, an MEP for Poland’s opposition Civic Platform (PO) party.
Poland has made the move despite there being just over a week left before EU member states are set to vote on Tusk’s re-election at a Brussels summit, the FT said, citing “two European diplomats with knowledge of the talks.”
But Beata Kempa, head of the Polish Prime Minister’s Office, called the report “speculation”.
She told private broadcaster TVN24: “Talks, consultations are underway, that is obvious... However, I cannot confirm this information."
The FT said that “without Warsaw’s efforts to rally countries against him, Mr Tusk’s reappointment for a second two-and-a half-year term is seen by many diplomats as a formality".
The paper added that Szydło’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party “has refused to support Mr Tusk’s re-election bid, partly due to the deep personal animosity between him and Jarosław Kaczyński, the party’s leader.”
Law and Justice swept to power in late 2015, ousting Tusk’s Civic Platform party, which had been in government for eight years.
(pk)
Source: ft.com/IAR