Former centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk was elected the new leader of the Civic Platform (PO), Poland’s largest opposition party, in elections held across the country on Saturday.
Tusk received over 97% of all votes, the party’s national election commissioner, Dorota Niedziela, said at a press conference on Sunday.
In a popular party vote, 11,474 votes were cast for the sole candidate of Tusk, Niedziela stated. 253 people voted against him.
Tusk, a former top European Union official and a co-founder of Civic Platform, was acting president of the party since July. The elections have been ordered despite the fact that the term of office of Boris Budka, a leader before Tusk, was set to expire in January 2022.
However, Civic Platform officials decided to hold the election of a new leader earlier, because in October elections were held at all levels of power inside the party.
Earlier this month, Tusk unveiled a bill to amend the country's constitution so that any potential exit from the European Union required a clear mandate from the public or lawmakers.
Under the proposal, the decision to leave the EU would have to be made in a national referendum or by a two-thirds majority in both chambers of parliament.
Donald Tusk served as Poland’s prime minister from 2007 to 2014. He then became president of the European Council. In 2019, he became the leader of the European People’s Party, the largest grouping in the European Parliament.
(jh)
Source: PAP