PM Szydło: Tusk's candidacy is an issue for his political group
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
19.01.2017 16:55
Donald Tusk's candidacy to head the European Council for a second term is not a matter for the Polish government, but his European Parliament political grouping, said PM Beata Szydło.
Donald Tusk. Photo: Twitter.com/eucopresident
She added that she will ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel during an upcoming visit to Warsaw whether Tusk will be the candidate of the European People's Party.
The Polish ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has said that it will not be supporting Tusk for a second term in Brussels.
Szydło spoke to Polish Radio about the election of Antonio Tajani to head the European Parliament, replacing German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, who served as the Parliament’s president for five years.
“I think that the European Parliament should first of all to build its own position, which I think everyone expects, that actually deal with issues that lie within its competence, described in the treaties,” Szydło said.
She said that Schultz “abused this political function in the European Parliament”.
In recent months Poland was the subject of several debates in the European Parliament. In the first debate, in January 2016, Prime Minister Szydło rebutted criticism of changes to the judiciary introduced by her government, which came to power after a landslide win by PiS in Poland’s 2015 general elections.
(rg)