DONALD TUSK is Poland’s most successful prime minister since the fall of communism. Under his leadership his country has become the rising star of the European Union, and he has managed to build a close and cordial relationship with Germany, Poland’s most important trading partner and the EU’s power center. He has maintained a reputation for personal integrity and even managed to keep his party, the centre-right Civic Platform (PO), away from the corruption scandals that are the scourge of many central and eastern European countries.
Yet since the beginning of the year Mr Tusk’s star has started to wane, as Poles have become worried about a slowing economy and disenchanted with the lack of reforms by the government. For most of the euro crisis, Poland has been an oasis amid ailing economies. But after nearly two decades of uninterrupted growth, the economy avoided recession by a mere whisker in the first quarter. Unemployment rose to 13.6% (see chart). “…
