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Morning opening: Embattled Tusk seeks fresh start
Jakub Krupa
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk will face a vote of confidence in parliament this afternoon as he seeks to bounce back from his party’s presidential election defeat two weeks ago.
Warsaw centrist mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, Tusk’s deputy in the Civic Platform party, unexpectedly lost the presidency to right-wing populist Karol Nawrocki, backed by the opposition Law and Justice party, sparking questions over the government’s future.
Unusually, the vote was called by Tusk himself in a bid to shore up his fragile coalition, demonstrate a clear political mandate to govern, and reset the narrative ahead of the 2027 parliamentary election.
But the build up to today’s vote revealed bitter personal and ideological divisions and disagreements within the coalition, as leading politicians publicly blamed each other for the government’s shortcomings and poor delivery on their flagship promises.
The government, which came to power in late 2023, promised to reverse the erosion of democratic checks and balances that had marked the eight-year rule of the Law and Justice party (PiS).
But it faced a politically hostile presidency in the conservative incumbent, Andrzej Duda, who yielded the blocking power of veto. With Nawrocki elected for a five-year term, the government has to learn how to live with a difficult president or face a complete paralysis.
On paper, the governing coalition has a clear majority in the Sejm, with 242 MPs in the 460-seat chamber.
But some government lawmakers indicated they were not happy with the prime minister, and would like to see radical changes in the top team and its priorities. Others were reportedly approached by PiS leaders looking for an alternative, right-wing majority in the parliament.
What could possibly go wrong.
Tusk is scheduled to kick the debate off shortly, with the main vote expected around 2pm Warsaw time (1pm BST).
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Wednesday, 11 June 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
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Jakub Krupa
You will have to excuse me for not bringing you a blow-by-blow report on this debate, but the latest question was about the sports sponsorship choices of a state-owned sugar producer, so I hope you will understand.
Jakub Krupa
I really hope someone is making notes for Tusk, because he is no longer in the chamber either – and yet he is somehow expected to respond to these (260+) questions at the end of this bloc.
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The court found that Svetlana Burceva had worked with a reserve officer of Russia’s FSB security service in “activities against the independence and sovereignty” of Estonia.
“The sentence was six years in prison,” the Harju county district court said in a statement.
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A concentrated, nine-minute-long Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv in the middle of the night killed three people and injured 64, including nine children, Ukrainian officials said.
Reuters reported the overnight attack followed Russia’s two biggest air assaults of the war on Ukraine this week, part of intensified bombardments that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv’s recent attacks in Russia.
Two men jailed for life for supplying car bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia
Juliette Garside
Two men have been sentenced to life in prison for supplying the car bomb that killed the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta eight years ago.
The sentencing on Tuesday of Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, reported to be members of the island’s criminal underworld, marked a significant step in the long campaign to bring those charged with Caruana Galizia’s murder to justice.
Her death in October 2017 sparked outrage across Europe and embroiled Malta’s governing party in accusations of a coverup, ultimately leading to the resignation of the then prime minister, Joseph Muscat.
Prosecutors have brought charges against seven people, including a millionaire businessman who is still awaiting trial.
Agius and Vella, who had pleaded not guilty, were sentenced after their conviction on Friday last week. Jurors returned an 8-1 verdict after a trial that lasted more than six weeks.
Greek court strips three far-right MPs of seats over electoral fraud
Helena Smith
A landmark court decision has dealt a blow to the far-right movement in Greece after MPs with the neo-fascist Spartans party were deprived of seats in parliament.
Citing electoral fraud, a specially assembled electoral tribunal stripped three of the group’s lawmakers, including its leader, of their status in a move that, for the first time since the collapse of military rule, leaves Athens’ 300-seat parliament operating with just 297 MPs.
In an unprecedented step, judges ruled that voters had been “deceived” in general elections two years ago because, although Vasilis Stigkas was described as the party leader, there was another person pulling the strings: Ilias Kasidiaris, an unrepentant neo-Nazi and former leader of the now disbanded Golden Dawn.
Parties in Greece legally cannot run in elections if their “real leaders” have been convicted of crimes such as participating in a criminal organisation.
Jakub Krupa
The Polish debate is, so far, going along the usual party lines, so let’s take a moment to bring you some updates from elsewhere in Europe instead.
Poland's Tusk faces vote of confidence in parliament - in pictures
Jakub Krupa
There are about 260 questions to Tusk, one minute each, so it may take a while.
Hope he is making comprehensive notes.
If you want to follow the Polish parliamentary debate on Tusk’s government live, you can do it here:
But if you don’t speak Polish, don’t worry: I will bring you all the key updates here.
Back to Poland, Tusk moves on to outline his plans for the future.
He says that, assuming they win the vote today, the government will appoint a spokesperson in June to “overhaul” its communications (until now Tusk played that role as the PM) with a broader political reshuffle to follow in July.
He says the government has a number of draft laws ready to go, including new rule of law reforms and a broader deregulation push.
He urges his MPs to show discipline and get behind the government’s plans to regain the momentum ahead of the 2027 parliamentary election.
“I’m counting on the fact that these nearly two and a half years without elections are a unique moment. Two and a half years without all that bickering. Two and a half years without constantly hitting each other over the head. That’s a lot of time,” he says.
And after around an hour, that’s it.
We will move to Q&A next. The key vote is expected around 2pm local (1pm BST).
Minute of silence in Graz
You can watch the minute of silence in Graz here:
Austria reels from 'national tragedy' after school shooting in Graz
Austria and Graz are about to stop for a minute of silence to pay tribute to 10 people killed in a school shooting yesterday by a 21-year-old former student.
Nine people died on scene, and another one died in hospital. The attacker shot himself on scene.
Further 11 people were seriously injured and remain in hospitals.
For context and some balance, the latest CBOS poll from late May showed that 44% voters opposed the government, with 32% expressing their support, 20% taking neutral position, and 4% undecided.
52% were unhappy with the government’s track record, with 35% happy, and 13% undecided.
Asked about Tusk personally, 53% has a negative view of the prime minister, 35% – positive, and 12% had no opinion on him.
Tusk says his government struggled to communicate its successes to the public, as he lists some key achievements.
“If we told our story even half as well as we actually governed, we would be winning election after election,” he says.
He says his government increased defence spending by 67% and stepped up the security of Poland’s eastern border with Belarus.
He also says the new administration stopped the previous government’s alleged large-scale abuses of the visa regime by introducing more stringent checks, which led to a drop in the number of visas issued to residents of Asian and African countries by 50%.
He then goes on to laud the government’s track record with social transfers.
We need to offer plan for future, not excuses, Tusk says
Tusk starts by saying he wants to “get straight to the point” as “this is not a day for long, flowery speeches”.
He says that the result of the presidential election makes it clear that the government will face “greater challenges than we expected”.
“This is not an earthquake, but let’s call things for what they are: we are facing two and a half years of very hard … work in [political] conditions that are not going to improve,” he admits.
But he insists the coalition still “has the mandate to govern” it received in 2023, reaffirmed by over 10m votes for the government’s candidate at the presidential election two weeks ago.
He acknowledges “impatience, sometimes disappointment or anger” among voters, and says the government needs to take responsibility for the defeat and “not … offer excuses”, but show a plan for the road ahead.
Tusk mischievously notes the absence of PiS MPs, joking his government clearly has a clear majority in the house today.
Tusk is starting his speech now.
Curiously, most MPs from the main opposition party, Law and Justice, are not in the chamber.
Morning opening: Embattled Tusk seeks fresh start
Jakub Krupa
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk will face a vote of confidence in parliament this afternoon as he seeks to bounce back from his party’s presidential election defeat two weeks ago.
Warsaw centrist mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, Tusk’s deputy in the Civic Platform party, unexpectedly lost the presidency to right-wing populist Karol Nawrocki, backed by the opposition Law and Justice party, sparking questions over the government’s future.
Unusually, the vote was called by Tusk himself in a bid to shore up his fragile coalition, demonstrate a clear political mandate to govern, and reset the narrative ahead of the 2027 parliamentary election.
But the build up to today’s vote revealed bitter personal and ideological divisions and disagreements within the coalition, as leading politicians publicly blamed each other for the government’s shortcomings and poor delivery on their flagship promises.
The government, which came to power in late 2023, promised to reverse the erosion of democratic checks and balances that had marked the eight-year rule of the Law and Justice party (PiS).
But it faced a politically hostile presidency in the conservative incumbent, Andrzej Duda, who yielded the blocking power of veto. With Nawrocki elected for a five-year term, the government has to learn how to live with a difficult president or face a complete paralysis.
On paper, the governing coalition has a clear majority in the Sejm, with 242 MPs in the 460-seat chamber.
But some government lawmakers indicated they were not happy with the prime minister, and would like to see radical changes in the top team and its priorities. Others were reportedly approached by PiS leaders looking for an alternative, right-wing majority in the parliament.
What could possibly go wrong.
Tusk is scheduled to kick the debate off shortly, with the main vote expected around 2pm Warsaw time (1pm BST).
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Wednesday, 11 June 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
