Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited the White House on March 12. It was an unusual presentation of Polish unity. The prime minister and the president come from opposite camps. Tusk is the leader of the liberal Civic Platform, Duda came from the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS). The president is also the conservatives’ last hope to stop liberal hegemony. It can block government laws, three-fifths of MPs are needed to override a presidential veto, but the government does not have that number.
The presidential palace and the prime minister’s office are therefore often at odds. In Washington, however, they noted the importance of the transatlantic link and the need to support Ukraine. There seemed to be a truce in Polish politics. However, this did not last long. Immediately after the return of Donald Tusk from the USA, the Polish government announced a huge purge in diplomacy, fifty ambassadors are to leave their posts.
It is a particularly nasty practice of the lesson of Polish politics known by the acronym TKM, or “Now the fuck we”, quoted earlier in Echo. The exchange of power in Poland traditionally takes place as the occupation of enemy territory. It is accompanied by deep purges, during which the new government appoints its people to positions in the state administration, in the public media, in the secret service and diplomacy. But even in the Polish context, such a mass exchange is unusual.
Prime Minister Tusk and his Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski have shown a massive amount of ruthlessness. Most of the time, similar changes take place more slowly and less drastically. Tusk basically repeated the process of changing the leadership of the public media.
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