EU conservatives turn fury on Poland over Tusk challenge

The leader of the centre-right bloc in the European Parliament threatened on Sunday to expel a Polish politician who has been nominated by Warsaw to replace fellow-Pole Donald Tusk as chair of European Union summit meetings.

In a sign of mounting frustration among fellow Europeans with the right-wing government in Warsaw, Manfred Weber said in a statement that the conservative EPP, the biggest group in the EU legislature, would expel Jacek Saryusz-Wolski if he did not drop the bid to replace Tusk, which many diplomats see as farcical.

EU leaders are expected to give Tusk, a former Polish prime minister from the centre-right Civic Platform (PO), a second 30-month term as president of their European Council during a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Until Saturday, no other candidate had emerged. By tradition any challenger would be expected to be a sitting or recently retired government leader. All members except Poland have backed Tusk.

However, the current Warsaw government run by Tusk's right-wing opponents, the Law and Justice party (PiS) headed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has insisted Tusk should not be reappointed. On Saturday, it nominated Saryusz-Wolski, a PO lawmaker who sits in the European Parliament in Weber's EPP group.

Weber, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said on Sunday that the EPP continued to back Tusk, also an EPP member, and said it would expel Saryusz-Wolski if he did not drop out.

"Donald Tusk ... enjoys unanimous support from the entire EPP party family," Weber said in a statement. "It is symptomatic that the Polish government once again pursues only a Polish domestic policy agenda and has completely abandoned any constructive ambition at European level. Every further attack on Donald Tusk will only jeopardize Polish interests in Europe."

Under PiS, Poland, by far the biggest ex-Communist country in the EU, has been criticized by Brussels for attempting to curb the powers of the constitutional court and the media.

Diplomats said the dispute over Tusk was unwelcome for nearly every other government. The chances of them naming another Pole to succeed him are virtually zero. Even putting that aside, few see the little known Saryusz-Wolski as credible.

Nonetheless, Kaczynski's attack on Tusk creates a diplomatic embarrassment at a time when the EU is struggling to reaffirm its unity and credibility after Britain's vote to quit.

Legally, no state has a veto. Tusk's reappointment can be confirmed by a majority vote. In 2014, the Council overrode fierce objections from then British Prime Minister David Cameron to appoint Jean-Claude Juncker president of the EU executive.

However, diplomats say that leaders place greater store on finding a consensus choice when it comes to the presidency of their own summit institution, and would prefer not to vote on it.

(Reuters)