Tusk, a political braggart?

(B2) He was predicted to be a 'political end', a 'skilled manoeuvrer', capable of energizing European politics, the Pole Donald Tusk, who currently presides over the destinies of the European Council, seems to accumulate disappointments. One might wonder if he is not rather an elephant in a china shop. With a ransom: what is asked of him is to (no longer) move. And when it moves, it does damage.

Those who put barriers and those who save...

Latest heist, Donald Tusk puts in the same bag the Italians, the Greeks, the Hungarians and the Slovaks. " Everyone must have a shared responsibility in the defense of the external borders. An assimilation that has the gift of bristling Rome. " Do not confuse the responsibility of these countries which worked against and those which carried only on their shoulders the load of the reception exclaims Gianni Pittella, the chairman of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in Parliament. Italian anger did not seem to be extinguished quickly.

Matteo Renzi goes to the front

During the last European Council, Thursday (October 15), in Brussels, the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, stepped up to the plate. During the meeting, according to Italian sources, he blurted out: “We cannot equate those who build the walls and those who save lives at sea ". And facing the press, it is even harder. " The phrases that Donald Tusk used are not the most appropriate, not so much for the government as for the Italian people who, in recent months, have done extraordinary work to save tens of thousands of people. These words are not respectful of his efforts. It is relatively rare for the President of the European Council to be criticized in such a harsh way. Even Sarkozy, whose rather hard tooth was known, was more respectful of the work carried out by D. Tusk's predecessor, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy.

A risk of decoupling from the European Council

A diplomat, very good connoisseur of the European game, questioned not long ago on the character "Donald Tusk", had skilfully dodged the question, preferring to speak in general terms of the innovation of the President of the European Council. A clever way of not directly criticizing the man who inhabits this Council. " With the Treaty of Lisbon, there is a permanent risk that the European Council is a little above ground, decoupled from the decision-making system. He is both expected and lives his life. he had stated. The organization of a summit on September 23, the very day after the meeting of interior ministers, was considered a bit inconsequential. This " is not ideal. We would be in a rotating presidency, we would have organized things differently »

A president above ground?

In fact, it is the problem of Donald Tusk who seems a little "above ground". Hence his permanent temptation to want to catch up with the train, to take peremptory positions which then attract the wrath of the capitals. What his predecessor was careful to do. He always seems to be behind political news. Initially, totally obsessed with Russia and Ukraine, he tried to impose Poroshenko's presence on all councils. This ended up irritating several of the capitals, in particular in Paris and Berlin, which let him know fairly quickly that the Ukrainian was not a member of the European Council. In this obsession with the East, he forgot the crisis that was mounting in a major way in the south. The questions of Syria, Libya, the Middle East and Africa more generally have hardly been put on the agenda of the European Council. However, according to the Treaty of Lisbon, it is in this body that the main guidelines of foreign policy must be decided.

... the European Council identifies the strategic interests and objectives of the Union. European Council decisions on the Union's strategic interests and objectives relate to the common foreign and security policy and to other areas of the Union's external action. (Article 22 of the Treaty on European Union)

Latest example. While the migrant and refugee crisis is exploding, Donald Tusk is delaying convening a European Council... Official reason given: the risk of division among the Member States. A risk that bursts into public opinion. The capitals blame each other, through the media, for the crisis. Finally he decides in extremis at the end of September. We will have to wait until mid-October for us to address the question of solidarity with the countries closest to the centers of crisis. But we still haven't really tackled the central issues, action on the main centers of crisis (Syria, Yemen, Libya...). A masterful delay.

A double political pincer

At this rate, his mandate, which is two and a half years, may well not be renewed. All the more so as he will come up against a double political obstacle. If the opposition PiS (Law and Justice) wins in Poland at the end of October, it will be a personal defeat for Donald Tusk who will be weakened both nationally and in Europe. The next European Councils with a victorious supporter of Kaczyński risk being a real ordeal for Tusk... but also in a certain way a difficulty for the other Europeans. At the institutional level, the change of President of the European Parliament, mid-term, between the Socialist-Democrats (S&D) and the Christian Democrats (a rotation planned from the start of the elections) would automatically bring 3 EPPs to the head of the three main Community institutions (European Commission, European Parliament, European Council), which is difficult to justify, especially for the Socialists & Democrats who now claim a certain parity. Barring an early departure of Jean-Claude Juncker from the Commission, which no one wants, one of their number would therefore have to be installed in the European Council, argue a number of S&D leaders. Not without arguments. Donald Tusk is therefore caught in this double political pincer movement, national and European, from which he will find it very difficult to extricate himself, especially if he gets angry with a few Member States...

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)