New Delhi:
Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, will be a part of the NDTV World Summit 2026 in New Delhi on October 22 and 23.
The two-day event will bring together world leaders, policymakers, business leaders and technology experts to discuss major global issues. This year's theme, "A World Between Orders," focuses on how the world is changing.
Who is Donald Tusk?
Donald Franciszek Tusk was born on April 22, 1957, in Gdansk, a port city in northern Poland. His father worked as a carpenter on the railway, while his mother worked as a secretary at a hospital. Tusk was 14 when his father died.
Tusk completed his graduation in history at the University of Gdansk in 1980. During his college years, he became involved in activities against the communist government and worked with the underground Free Trade Unions, which supported workers' rights.
In 1980, Tusk helped set up the Independent Students' Association, known as NZS. The group was part of the Solidarity movement, which demanded workers' rights and political freedom. He also became a solidarity activist at his workplace and worked for a newspaper published by the movement.
In December 1981, Poland's government imposed martial law under General Wojciech Jaruzelski, and Tusk went into hiding for some time. Then, he worked as a bread seller. From 1984 to 1989, he worked as a manual labourer specialising in jobs at heights, using climbing equipment.
In 1983, Tusk started an underground monthly magazine called Political Review. At the time, Poland was under communist rule, and the magazine was published illegally.
After communist rule ended in Poland, Tusk served as a member of parliament and deputy speaker of the Senate during the 1990s. He was also involved in the privatisation of the former communist state's press business.
In 2001, he helped establish Civic Platform, a centrist political party that later became one of Poland's major parties. He became its leader in 2003 and led it until 2014, when he was elected President of the European Council.
Tusk took charge of the role in December and was re-elected in 2017 for another two-and-a-half-year term. His tenure ended on November 30, 2019.
In 2019, Tusk became president of the European People's Party, a group of centre-right political parties across Europe. He held the position until 2022.
Tusk returned to Polish politics in 2021 and took charge of Civic Platform again. He has spent seven years and becomes the longest-serving prime minister of the Third Polish Republic.