Having been expelled from his own party and the EPP group at the European Parliament on Monday 6 March, and accused by his former colleagues of betrayal, the MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski has become the flag bearer of a late and controversial attempt by the Polish government to sabotage the re-election of fellow Pole Donald Tusk to the post of President of the European Council.
When the government of the Conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is affiliated to the ECR group in Parliament, sounded the other capitals out as to Saryusz-Wolski's chances as Poland's official alternative candidate to Task, the result was a resounding 27 against. With the exception of the instigators of this initiative, nobody would give their backing to the MEP to challenge the EPP's official and only candidate. This informal survey was carried out on Friday 3 March, the day before the Polish government sent its diplomatic note to the Maltese Presidency of the Council of EU informing it that Saryusz-Wolski was now Poland's official candidate for the Presidency of the European Council.
This created consternation among the opposition in Poland and the EPP group. Even in the Visegrad group (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia), this sudden strategic move of the Polish government caused dismay, as the Polish Foreign Minister, Witold Waszczykowski, became aware on Sunday 5 March, when he dined with his opposite numbers of the Visegrad group and Benelux. The following day, upon their arrival at the Council, the Slovak and Czech ministers officially announced, in spite of everything, their continued support of Tusk, who has done a great deal of good for central and eastern Europe, as Miroslav Lajčák stressed.
Incidentally, the lack of any support for Saryusz-Wolski does not appear greatly to trouble the Polish authorities or the candidate himself. He is our candidate and must be taken into account, Waszczykowski said, adding that he was “not interested” in whether anybody else supported him. “There is no other Polish candidate”, he stressed, saying that it was possible that the European Council of Thursday 9 March could result in stalemate over the election (by a qualified majority).
A ministerial post in the Polish government? Replacing Elżbieta Bieńkowska as European Commissioner for the Single Market? Speculation is rife as to Saryusz-Wolski's motivation, as he was well aware that he was heading for a major clash with his political group with no realistic chance of getting the job he is standing for. In any case, he is running the risk of going down as the “instrument of a petty grudge borne by Kaczyński (the éminence grise of the Polish government: Ed) against Tusk”, as Janusz Lewandowski, the head of the Polish EPP delegation, put it. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)