After European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen thanked Donald Tusk for his “tireless work” as the president of the European People’s Party (EPP), a number of mocking and ironic comments were directed at von der Leyen’s post.
Von der Leyen made the post after Tusk was replaced by MEP Manfred Weber from Germany’s CDU/CSU as the new president of the EPP just a day earlier.
Some of the comments mocked the alleged “values” that Tusk respresents.
“Dear Donald, you embody our values. What are they? Gender, Germanization of Europe and collaboration with Putin? That is exactly why Tusk should keep far away from Poland and Poles!” posted Polish Deputy Justice Minister Romanowski on Twitter.
The head of TVP Info porta, Samuel Pereira, implied that Tusk represents values, but they just happen to be German values, referring back to the fact that von der Leyen once served as the German Minister of Defense in Angela Merkel’s government.
“’Dear Donald, you embody our values. Now you are coming back to your country to defend them.’ – former Minister of National Defense in the government of Angela Merkel,” Samuel Pereira wrote on Twitter.
The 27th EPP congress in Rotterdam was scheduled to take place in November 2022 but was advanced to an earlier date after Tusk’s decision to return to Polish politics and assume the leadership position of the opposition Civic Platform (PO). There are no legal or formal obstacles against combining serving as head of the EPP and PO at the same time, however, Tusk decided to focus solely on domestic Polish politics.
On Thursday, von der Leyen visited Poland to approve the National Recovery Plan, which stipulates that Poland is to receive around €58 billion, over €23.9 billion in direct aid and over €34.2 billion in the form of loans.
