Donald Tusk

Donald Franciszek Tusk (/tuːsk/ TOOSK; Polish: [ˈdɔnalt fraɲˈt͡ɕiʂɛk ˈtusk] ^ⓘ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since 2023, having previously held the post from 2007 to 2014. From 2014 to 2019 Tusk served as President of the European Council, and from 2019 to 2022 he was the president of the European People's Party (EPP). He co-founded the Civic Platform (PO) party in 2001 and has served as its long-time leader, first from 2003 to 2014 and again since 2021.

Tusk has been involved in Polish politics since the late 1980s, having founded multiple political parties and held elected office almost continuously since 1991. He was one of the co-founders of the free market–oriented Liberal Democratic Congress party (KLD). He entered the Sejm in 1991, but lost his seat in 1993. In 1994, the KLD merged with the Democratic Union to form the Freedom Union. In 1997, Tusk was elected to the Senate, and became its deputy marshal. In 2001, he co-founded another centre-right liberal conservative party, the PO, and was again elected to the Sejm, becoming its deputy marshal.

Tusk stood unsuccessfully for President of Poland in the 2005 election and would also suffer defeat in the 2005 Polish parliamentary election. However, he would lead the PO to victory at the 2007 parliamentary election, and was appointed Prime Minister. He led the PO to a second victory in the 2011 election, becoming the first Polish prime minister to be re-elected since the fall of communism in 1989. In 2014, he left Polish politics to accept appointment as president of the European Council, having been the longest-serving prime minister of the Third Polish Republic and the third longest-serving prime minister of Poland overall, after Józef Cyrankiewicz and Piotr Jaroszewicz.

During his absence in Polish politics, Tusks's Civic Platform would lose control of both the presidency and parliament to the rival Law and Justice party in the 2015 Polish parliamentary election and 2015 Polish presidential election. Tusk served as President of the European Council until 2019; although initially remaining in Brussels, he later returned to Polish politics in 2021. He became leader of the Civic Platform for a second time after the party had again lost to the PiS in 2019 and 2020. In the 2023 election, his Civic Coalition won 157 seats in the Sejm to become the second-largest bloc in the chamber. The other opposition parties won enough seats between them to form a coalition majority with the Civic Coalition, ending eight years of government by the Law and Justice party. Following Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's failure to secure a vote of confidence on 11 December, Tusk was elected by the Sejm to become Prime Minister for a third time. His cabinet was sworn in on 13 December.