2024-02-17 14:30 update: 2024-02-19, 13:47
Photo PAP/Paweł Supernak
April's local government elections in Poland will be crucial for the country, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk argued during the launch of his party Civic Platform's (PO) local government campaign.
The local elections to be held on April 7 come just six months after the October 15 general election that saw the previous government, led by the socially conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, ousted by a coalition of three pro-EU parties, including PO.
Addressing PO supporters at the Saturday launch, Tusk said that "the stakes are high in these elections" because PiS "unleashed an internal war between the central government and local governments."
"These elections, and I am convinced that we will win them, are intended to end the war at this level....We are the guarantors of this." he added.
According to him, "local government is the place where the reconciliation we dream of can take place."
Tusk also said that "Poland deserves good governance at every level.
"We are still at the beginning of this road, this road never ends. I am here today to give a strong and clear signal again, there is no time to rest."
In his opinion, the local government campaign is "in some sense even more important, than this great battle that was decided in favour of our homeland on October 15."
"What is happening in Poland and around Poland, in the world... shows an old truth that sometimes some people forget, that the most important values in public life, democracy, security of our families and towns, high standards, positive moral strain, all this is always at risk when people think that everything is already sorted out. This is never the case," Tusk said.
He added that "a good central government that we are building today is one that... hands over resources and competences to people who want to decide about their fate at a level appropriate to the problem." (PAP)
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