Do we like Donald Tusk?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A leader who has apologised to same-sex couples and backs abortion reform, but has been hard-edged on asylum and cautious on the Green Deal.
Tusk is Poland's prime minister again since December 2023, after earlier stints running the country and then chairing the European Council. These days he's in a running stoush with conservative President Karol Nawrocki, who has vetoed a long list of his government's bills.
On LGBTQ+ rights, the headline is May 2026, when he apologised to same-sex couples for the “years of rejection and humiliation” and promised to implement EU and Polish court rulings recognising foreign same-sex marriages. A civil partnership bill cleared cabinet in December 2025 but hadn't reached a parliamentary vote, and Nawrocki is widely expected to veto it. Rights groups had criticised the government for dragging its feet, so it's progress with a fair bit of waiting.
On women's rights it's a similar story of two steps forward. A 2024 attempt to decriminalise helping someone get an abortion failed 218 to 215. On 20 October 2026 a similar bill passed 217 to 213, alongside a bill allowing abortion in cases of severe foetal defects. Both go to the Senate and then a president who opposes abortion.
Now the harm check. In October 2024 his government announced a temporary suspension of asylum applications for people crossing from Belarus, which rights groups said breached international law. He has also called for a review of the Green Deal over energy prices, praised by some Czech politicians and criticised by Green Deal backers. None of that is campaigning against a group, but a mate who cares about migrants and the planet will wince.
He's been accused by political opponents too. In February 2025 the head of the Constitutional Tribunal sent prosecutors a document accusing Tusk and ministers of mounting a “coup d'etat”, and prosecutors opened an investigation. Tusk brushed it off in a table-tennis video. No court has decided anything.
On the world stage he's been blunt about Russia. In April 2026 he told the Financial Times a Russian attack on a NATO member could come in “rather months than years”, and questioned whether the US would honour its commitments. In May he called a US visa for ex-justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who is indicted on 26 abuse of power charges he denies, “outrageous”.