Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Image: Getty)
Donald Tusk, Poland’s recently installed Prime Minister, is “the EU’s man in Warsaw” - and is being used by the bloc to target democracy in Poland, a UK-based expert has claimed.
Robert Oulds, Director of the Bruges Group think tank, also alleged that what he called the “EU clique” was targeting neighbouring Hungary by trying to remove its voting rights in the European Council.
Both Poland and Hungary have been at loggerheads with Brussels in recent years as a result of concerns over controversial legal reforms.
The election of Mr Tusk - a former President of the European Council - in October has coincided with particular controversy, particularly after he ordered TVP, Poland’s state broadcaster, to be taken off the air, claiming it was a mouthpiece for the ousted Law and Justice Party.
With respect to Hungary, MEPs earlier this week called for the country to be stripped of its voting rights in the Council, accusing Prime Minister Viktor Orban of overriding democratic values and the independence of the judicial system. They are also smarting at Mr Orban’s threat to hold up EU funding for war-torn Ukraine.
READ MORE: Ursula von der Leyen's dismay as Guy Verhofstadt accuses her of EU blackmail
Dominik Tarczyński hits out at Donald Tusk
Mr Oulds told Express.co.uk: “The EU clique has for several years been attacking the governments of Eastern Europe. We need to understand the attacks on Orban as part of a wider move to quash independent nation states in Eastern Europe
“One of the issues is their refusal to take migrants that arrived in Germany.”
Standing up to what he called “German bullies” was “not a bad thing”, Mr Oulds suggested.
He continued: “They are also attacking Hungary in an attempt to undermine their pro-natalist, pro-marriage policy.
Viktor Orban, Hungary's Prime Minister (Image: Getty)
“It’s basically a case of European liberals trying to remove Hungary’s voting rights in the European Council, which violates the principle of unanimity - one of the last vestiges of national sovereignty held by EU member states - simply because Hungary doesn’t subscribe to the prevailing anti-democratic orthodoxy in Brussels.”
Turning his attention to Mr Tusk, who in 2019 famously claimed there was a “special place in hell” for Brexiteers who advocated walking away from the negotiating table without a deal with the EU, Mr Oulds said: “His forced takeover of the Polish media was yesterday ruled unlawful by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.
“In response, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (which was responsible for this action) posted a tweet saying that it would simply ignore the ruling because it does not recognise the authority of the court.
“The situation in Poland is such that there are now effectively two competing legal systems - one based on the constitution and institutions and the other based on Tusk’s government’s interpretation of the law.
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Katalin Cseh has suggested Hungary could be stripped of its European Council voting rights (Image: Getty)
“Tusk is the EU's man in Warsaw.”
In a statement issued yesterday, Hungarian MEP Katalin Cseh, who sits with the liberal Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, said: “This House shows that we are serious when it comes to defending the rule of law in our Union and that we are not afraid of Prime Minister Orban’s blackmailing attempts.
“The Commission will now have to face the consequences for selling out our EU values.”
Earlier Mr Orban had posted on X, previously Twitter: “Liberal MEPs attacked Hungary once again in the European Parliament yesterday.
"They want to give money to Ukraine for four years, while the European elections are just five months away.
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"They essentially want to strip people of their rights to make decisions on their future.
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"What an anti-democratic position! Hungary disagrees.
"If we want to help Ukraine, let’s do it outside the EU budget and on a yearly basis!
"This is the only democratic position just five months before the elections."
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