Poland's new prime minister vows to press the West to continue helping neighboring Ukraine
World
Poland’s new prime minister vows to press the West to continue helping neighboring Ukraine
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s newly elected prime minister, Donald Tusk, vowed Tuesday that his government will demand that the West keep helping neighboring Ukraine, and pledged that Warsaw would be a stable ally of NATO and a leader in Europe.
In his inaugural speech to parliament, Tusk also called on Poland’s fractious political class to unite, saying it cannot afford divisions while Russia is waging a war of aggression across the border, a conflict many fear could spread if Moscow prevails.
“Poland’s task, the new government’s task, but also the task of all of us, is to loudly and firmly demand the full determination from the entire Western community to help Ukraine in this war. I will do this from day one,” Tusk said in a session attended by Ukraine’s ambassador and former Polish presidents, including the anti-communist freedom fighter Lech Walesa.
Tusk expressed his exasperation that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy must keep urging world leaders to continue supporting Kyiv’s struggle in a war that has killed or maimed tens of thousands of Ukrainians. As another winter sets in, allies are growing tired. Even funds from the United States are in doubt.
“I can no longer listen to some European politicians and those from other Western countries who say they are tired of the situation in Ukraine,” Tusk said. “They say to President Zelenskyy’s face that they no longer have the strength, that they are exhausted.”
Tusk was elected by parliament on Monday. His challenges include restoring democratic standards in Poland, working for the release of European Union funding that was frozen due to democratic backsliding by his predecessors, and seeking to manage the migration that is causing political upheaval in Europe.
Tusk, a centrist leader who was prime minister from 2007-2014, is the head of a broad coalition of parties that won election in October and has promised to work together under Tusk’s leadership to restore democratic standards and improve ties with allies.
Tusk’s speech came a day after lawmakers chose him as the prime minister after rejecting the former premier, Mateusz Morawiecki of the Law and Justice party. Tusk also introduced the ministers in his new Cabinet, and the new government will face a confidence vote on Tuesday afternoon. They will be sworn in by President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday.
Duda, an ally of the former government, had delayed the power transition as long as he could. He was on a visit to Switzerland and did not attend Tusk’s speech.
The 67-year-old Tusk has vowed to restore foreign ties strained by the Law and Justice-led government, which bickered even with allies likes Germany and Ukraine and was at odds with the EU over legal changes that eroded the independence of the nation’s judicial branch.
Tusk’s Cabinet includes a former foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, taking up that role again. Adam Bodnar, a respected human rights lawyer and former ombudsman, was tapped as justice minister.
In his speech, Tusk stressed that his country on NATO’s eastern flank would honor its obligations as a Western ally.
“Poland is and will be a key, strong, sovereign link in NATO, and Poland will be a loyal, stable ally of the United States, confident of its strength and importance,” Tusk said.Poland’s new prime minister vows to press the West to continue helping neighboring Ukraine.
