WARSAW (AFP) – Former European Council president Donald Tusk, who is hoping to put an end to populist rule in today’s elections in Poland, has become a hate figure for government supporters who portray him as “evil”.
Verbal attacks on the 66-year-old, who was also prime minister between 2007 and 2014, have been a feature of the campaign by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Even after eight years in power, key figures in the party like Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki blame Tusk for a long list of economic and social problems.
PiS warns his return would be catastrophic for Poland and accuses him of being a “coward” and a “traitor”.
In one recent speech, Morawiecki said he was the “political husband of (former German chancellor) Angela Merkel” while Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of PiS, said Tusk was “loyal but towards Germany, not Poland”.
His name is constantly in the headlines on TVP state television, which has become a government mouthpiece, and PiS electoral ads urge voters to “stop Tusk”.
“PiS has adopted a defensive strategy aimed primarily at an older electorate,” said a political analyst from the Visegrad Insight think tank Wojciech Przybylski.
