Tusk, Donald

Tusk, Donald, 1957–, Polish political leader, prime minister of Poland (2007–), b. Gdańsk. After studying history at Gdańsk Univ., he became active in the Solidarity movement in the 1980s. He then headed a party (the Liberal Democratic Congress) that emerged from Solidarity, and in 2001 co-founded the Civic Platform; Tusk was deputy speaker of the Polish parliament from 2001 to 2005. In 2005 his party lost in parliamentary elections to the Law and Justice party headed by Jarosław Kaczyński, and he was defeated in a bid for the presidency by Lech Kaczyński. An advocate of free-market policies, Tusk led the Civic Platform to victory in the 2007 parliamentary elections and became prime minister of a coalition government.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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