- Mar 11, 2017
- 3 min read

Meet Donald Tusk, EU's ex president, and one of the most corrupt and despotic politicians in Europe.

Updated: Oct 16, 2023

The president of the EU Donald Tusk, was recently reappointed (not elected) into office. This was despite vigorous protests from his own native country Poland. Why were Poles protesting one of their own? Because Donald Tusk was one of the most corrupt and despotic Polish politician that Poland has ever seen. During his years as prime minister rampant corruption infiltrated every office of the Polish government and banking sector and Journalists were fired from their jobs, beaten up and thrown to jail because they dared to report on those corruptions or even because they criticized Tusk and his government. It was during the ruling years of the Tusk's party the “Civic Platform” or “PO” that standards which are generally accepted by contemporary democracies, such as free speech, freedom of the press and the right to demonstrate against the government and its crimes were frequently and brazenly violated. Here are some examples of what transpired in clear breach of democratic norms while Donald Tusk was prime minister of Poland and while his PO party, which he continued to control even after he became EU president, ruled Poland.

In June 2014, agents of the Internal Security Agency raided the headquarters of the news weekly "Wprost" after the magazine published the transcripts of recorded conversations held by some of the highest level PO politicians in Warsaw’s most expensive restaurants. The so called “tape scandal” or “waitergate” that had erupted upon publication of the content of these tapes, provided evidence of many scandalous and criminal behaviors, including the revelation that state-owned companies actively subsidized those media platforms that were writing in favor of the ruling government. State security agents, raided the magazine's offices overnight and its editor said "physical force" had been used in an attempt to seize his laptop.

Polish police officers attempt to seize laptop from Wprost magazine editor-in-chief.

In November 2014, two journalists (Tomasz Gzela of the Polish Press Agency and Jan Pawlicki of Telewizja Republika) were arrested and thrown to jail for doing their jobs and covering the news. They were covering the protest held at the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission after the local elections in Poland in that year appeared to have been tempered with, if not outright forged.

This was not an isolated case but rather the norm of how Tusk and his party treated journalists and public figures and even citizens who criticized them. During the last 8 years the previous government kept journalists and citizens who were suspected of harboring anti Tusk and anti government sentiments under close surveillance as standard practice, and even raided their homes and offices on a routine basis. In the Tusk/PO years, anti government demonstration were frequently and brutally broken up by the police, with protesters being savagely beaten and arrested. But what was one the most disturbing aspect of his time in power was his collusion with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in covering up the 2010 Smolensk air crash.

Tusk meets Putin shortly after the 2010 Smolensk plane crash.

In 2010, the Polish presidential plane which carried the Polish president, his wife and 94 other key figures in the Polish government and army crashed in Smolensk, Russia, killing everyone onboard. The official report concluded that what caused the plane crash was a pilot error who flew too low and hit a birch tree, searing the wing off, despite evidence that suggested that the plane suffered an explosion before crashing in Russia. The official report was essentially compiled by the FSB (Russia's modern day equivalent of the KGB) approved by Vladimir Putin, and rubber stamped by the then Polish prime minister, and present day president of the EU, Donald Tusk. Independent journalists were dismissed from their posts when they pushed for a transparent investigation into the Smolensk crash. Tomasz Sakiewicz and Anita Gargas, among others, lost their jobs in the public media. Cezary Gmyz was dismissed from the editorial staff of "Rzeczpospolita" all because they protested the official Report that was compiled by Putin and the FSB and rubber stamped by Tusk and his government.