Kaczyński: Poland singled out in Europe

“Sooner or later our perseverance will reap good results,” Kaczyński told the wSieci weekly in an interview.

Kaczyński spoke about the recent re-election of former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to head the European Council for a 30-month term.

The Polish PiS government had proposed MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski as its candidate to run against Tusk.

During the voting in Brussels, Poland was the only country out of the 28-member bloc not to back Tusk. PiS had earlier said that over his previous term, Tusk had not done enough to further Polish interests, and had in fact overstepped his mandate and gotten involved in domestic Polish politics. Conservative voices had also said that Tusk was a “German candidate” who was working in the interests of German Channeller Angela Merkel.

"Poland is the only country in Europe that can stand up to Germany," Kaczyński said.

“I do not want to comment on the method of voting used,” he told wSieci, “Something else is more important.”

He said that the “27:1” tagline – used by the opposition to refer to the 27 EU-member votes supported Tusk against Poland's lone opposition – “illustrates the state of consciousness of the opposition”.

“They have completely forgotten that this '1' is Poland,” he said. (rg)