Summit reappoints Tusk for continuity in the EU
The Polish government had threatened to derail the talks if his presidency was forced through
Brussels — EU president Donald Tusk won a second term on Thursday despite fierce opposition from his native Poland, vowing he would try to make the bloc “better” in the wake of Brexit. Twenty-seven EU leaders voted at a summit in Brussels to give former Polish prime minister Tusk a new two-and-a-half-year mandate with only Poland voting against. Poland’s Eurosceptic right-wing government, a bitter long-term foe of the centrist Tusk, had threatened to derail the summit if the EU forced through his presidency but in the end the vote went ahead. “Grateful for trust and positive assessment by #EUCO [European Council]. I will do my best to make the EU better,” Tusk said on Twitter after re-election. Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who broke the news, and Belgian Premier Charles Michel quickly gave their congratulations. But Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, whose Law and Justice party loathes Tusk, had said such a move would damage the EU’s efforts to regroup from Britain’s ex...
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