PM Tusk named 'Man of 2011'

The official ceremony granting him the distinction will take place at the Warsaw Technical University on Tuesday.

This is the second time Donald Tusk was named the winner.

Wprost – whose editorial line has shifted to a more liberal political position since TV journalist Tomasz Lis took over the editorship in May last year - has been naming the Man of the Year since 1991.

The award recognizes Poles and foreigners who have had the biggest influence on the Polish political, social, economic and cultural scene of the past year.

The title is granted by the magazine’s editorial board with candidacies submitted by its readers and the Internet users via email and Facebook.

Others in the frame for this year's award were Janusz Palikot, the leader of the liberal Palikot Movement, which gained 10 percent of the vote in last October's general election and and Captain Tadeusz Wrona who managed to land Boeing 767 on its underside, without harm to any of the 231 people on board at the Warsaw Okecie Airport on November 1.

Previous recipients of the Man of the Year title include Leszek Balcerowicz, one of the initiators of Poland's 'shock therapy' economic reforms after the fall of communism and former head of the National Bank of Poland, former president Aleksander Kwasniewski as well as the Nobel laureate, the late poet Wislawa Szymborska who died last week. (di/pg)