Poland's prime minister won't seek presidency

Thu, 28 Jan 2010

Warsaw - Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday he will not run in Poland's presidential elections scheduled for this fall, saying he wants to work at maintaining the country's economic growth instead of competing for the "prestige and honor" of the presidency. "I don't want to take part in a race where the goal is the (presidential) palace and honor," Tusk said at a news conference at the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Saying that he would rather work to maintain Poland's economic growth as a member of his center-right Civic Platform party, he added: "My government has tactics ... to strengthen this positive tendency."

Tusk held the conference behind a map that showed Poland's estimated economic growth of 1.7 for 2009, a statistic announced today that makes Poland the sole European Union member in the positive for the year.

Tusk said his political plan would aim to maintain economic growth and limit debt and lessen the deficit. He said details of the plan would be announced Friday. He did not take questions from reporters at the conference.

The Civic Platform party will name its candidate for this fall's presidential election on May 16, said party head Grzegorz Schetyna. The current president, Lech Kaczynski of the Law and Justice Party, has not announced whether he will seek re-election.

Tusk's announcement comes after a recent gambling lobby scandal that has tarnished his party's image.

The scandal saw four top politicians depart on October 7 amid reports that politicians lobbied to block provisions in a bill that would have increased taxes the gambling industry pays to the state.

But the economy has remained an issue for boasting by the Tusk administration.

Tusk, along with Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski, have said Poland managed to escape recession thanks to their strategy of combating the economic crisis.

But the government's handling of the crisis - and Tusk's planned adoption of the euro currency - remained hot points of criticism from President Kaczynski, a long-time political rival.

Last year, Kaczynski warned of serious consequences of the world financial crisis and said it would be "risky" to switch to the euro during such a time. Tusk surprised many analysts by saying last year that Poland would adopt the euro currency by 2012, a date some officials later said was overambitious.

If the presidential election were held today, Tusk would get 31 per cent support over Kaczynski's 14 per cent, according to a survey in the daily Rzeczpospolita published Wednesday.

Tusk, who was active in the Solidarity union movement that helped topple Communism, has been prime minister since 2007. The post has a four-year term office.

Tusk ran a failed presidential campaign against Kaczynski in 2005, when he was defeated by a margin of 46 per cent to 54 per cent.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306333,polands-prime-minister-wont-seek-presidency.html.