Poland says EU ‘cheated’ in picking Donald Tusk as president of European Council

Poland has accused the European Union (EU) of having practiced “double standards and cheating” in the reelection of politician Donald Tusk as the European Council’s president despite a lack of consensus over the issue.

EU leaders voted by 27 to one at a Brussels summit of EU leaders last week, giving Tusk a second two-and-a-half-year mandate, while Poland voted against Tusk.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski wrote in the weekend edition of The Super Express newspaper that the refusal by the Council to consider Poland’s candidate for the post — Jacek Saryusz-Wolski — indicated that the body was practicing double standards.

“Why was it decided that the candidacy of... Jacek Saryusz-Wolski had to be decided by a consensus vote? And that for Donald Tusk, it was going to be a simple majority vote?” he wrote.

“It turned out that EU policy is one of double standards and cheating,” he said, adding that, from now on, EU member states “must be conscious that at any moment we may be deceived.”

“Certainly, we must lower our level of confidence in the EU. We will have to start following a negative policy,” he added.

He said the “negative” approach to the EU might be “blocking” future initiatives.

The ruling right-wing party in Poland is engaged in a bitter battle with the centrist Tusk, who is himself a Pole and was Poland’s prime minister from 2007 to 2014.

Poland’s government led by the far-right Law and Justice Party — headed by Prime Minister Beata Szydlo — is eurosceptic.

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