Donald Franciszek Tusk [ a ] born 22 April is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since , previously holding the office from to He co-founded the Civic Platform PO party in and has been its longtime leader, first from to and again since Tusk has been officially involved in Polish politics since , having co-founded multiple political parties, such as the free market —oriented Liberal Democratic Congress party KLD.
He first entered the Sejm in but lost his seat in In , Tusk was elected to the Senate and became its deputy marshal. In , he co-founded another centre-right liberal conservative party, the PO, and was again elected to the Sejm, becoming its deputy marshal. Leading the PO to victory at the parliamentary election , he was appointed prime minister, and scored a second victory in the election , becoming the first Polish prime minister to be re-elected since the fall of communism in The Civic Platform would lose control of both the presidency and parliament to the rival Law and Justice PiS party in the Polish parliamentary election and Polish presidential election.
Tusk was President of the European Council until ; although initially remaining in Brussels as leader of the EPP, he later returned to Polish politics in , becoming leader of the Civic Platform again. In the election , his Civic Coalition won seats in the Sejm to become the second-largest bloc in the chamber. Following the President -appointed 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, ending eight years of government by the PiS party. Having been the longest-serving prime minister of the Third Republic , Tusk oversaw in his first term the reduction and digitization of the public sector, wishing to present himself as a pragmatic liberal realist and technocrat.
In the lead-up to the co-organization by Poland of Euro , he invested strongly in infrastructure, expanding the highway network at the cost of the rail sector. In his second term, various scandals, unfulfilled promises and a cooling of the economy in — as a result of his European debt crisis -related austerity policies led to a drop in public support.
