Polish PM tells Tusk to quit EPP leadership
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called on Donald Tusk, the leader of the European People's Party (EPP), to step down over the EPP's "erroneous" policy towards Russia.
Tusk, who is also leader of Civic Platform, Poland’s biggest opposition party, has led the EPP since December 2019.
"I call on Donald Tusk to immediately resign from chairing the European People's Party," Morawiecki said in the Polish parliament on Thursday, claiming that the EPP's policies had resulted in Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, being able to blackmail Europe.
On January 21, Morawiecki told a press conference that the nearly-ready Nord Stream 2 Russia-Germany gas pipeline which bypasses Ukraine is "a project very strongly supported by the European People's Party."
On Thursday, he said: "It is through Nord Stream 2 that this erroneous EPP policy has resulted in Putin having instruments of blackmail in his hands.
"Unfortunately, you did not diversify gas supplies, you were not in favour of protecting our border so at least do not disturb us now," the Polish prime minister said addressing Tusk.
According to Morawiecki, "Poland has already done a lot more for the security of Ukraine and to raise the awareness of people all over Europe", pointing to his numerous visits to European capitals to discuss the geopolitical problems that Central and Eastern Europe faces.
"It is worth being decent, it would be worth resigning from the presidency of the EPP, which led to a crazy mistake, to the fact that today Putin, having the Nord Stream pipeline in his hand and thus having the Germans in his hand, is trying to blackmail the whole of Europe," Morawiecki said.
Morawiecki’s appeal, however, seems to contradict the EPP's position on Nord Stream 2. The party has said on many occasions that the pipeline project should be stopped immediately.
During a press conference in November 2021, Tusk called the decision to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline the biggest mistake of outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"From the perspective of EU interests, Nord Stream 2 is a bad project," Tusk said, as reported by PAP.
