Krauting laurel

I tried to translate Jack Lepiar's text for Deutsche Welle, yesterday. I found him while I was tracking the Polish MPs. Here he is:

"Zweimal um die Erde im Wahlkampf
Politics Poland
Donald Tusk - Return of the alpha male
Jacek Lepiar (from Warsaw)
13.12.202313. December 2023

For a long time Donald Tusk was considered a bon vivant who valued football more than hard political work. During the election campaign, he proved that he could remove right-wing populists in Poland. Now he's Prime Minister again.
When Donald Tusk returned to Poland from Brussels 2 years ago, his organization of the Civic Platform PO was in ruins. In the polls, the liberal-conservative group, which in 2015 lost power to right-populist Law and Justice (PiS), was incapable to gain even close to 20%.

No 1 at the time gave PO a chance in clashing with the PiS, which had an absolute majority in the home of Representatives. But then Tusk, who resigned early in May 2021 from the presidency of the European People's Party, took over the leadership of the profoundly depressed opposition organization and began systematic reconstruction work from scratch.
During the 2023 election campaign, the fresh opposition leader drove 70,000 kilometres, almost as much as he had twice traveled the world.

During hundreds of meetings in all parts of the country without stress, he established a direct dialog with voters, including his opponents. There were no barriers to safety and police control. 2 large, respective 100 thousand-thousand demonstrations in Warsaw, to which he called, played an crucial function in mobilising voters. Record, almost 75-percent turnout in the parliamentary elections on October 15, 2023, is mostly due to him. "Electoral triumph is his victory," she stated.
After the election for head of government on Monday (11 December) Tusk thanked his political companion, erstwhile president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wales. "44 years ago, in December 1979, erstwhile I was a young man at the time, we prepared an illegal demonstration in front of a shipyard in a Gdańsk dormitory" – Tusk turned to an 80-year-old man who voted in parliament from the guest jury. At the time, peculiar services intervened and ended the demonstration. "It was a formation experience. I understood then that politics is important," said the fresh Prime Minister.
Dissident from Gdańsk
In fact, the roots of Tusk's political commitment lie in his hometown of Gdańsk, where he was born in April 1957. As a past student, he supported there the conspiracy actions of the anti-communist opposition, which led to the establishment of the trade union Solidarity in 1980. After graduation, the historian earned a surviving as a worker, including cleaning mill chimneys. He published a political diary "Political Review" - a forum of liberal ideas, which appears to this day.
The fall of communism in 1989 opened fresh opportunities for political activity to the regime's critic. Inspired by liberal ideas, Tusk established a Liberal-Democratic legislature (KLD) after democratic transformations. For any time his organization belonged to a wider Christian-democratic structure of the Agreement of the Center of his future opponent Jarosław Kaczyński.
First steps in Parliament
In 1991, Tusk won his first parliamentary mandate and served as Vice-President of the Second Chamber of Parliament, the legislature for any time. However, his staff complained about deficiency of interest in systematic work and deficiency of discipline.
In 2001, Tusk founded his fresh party, the Civic Platform (PO). It became a major player in Polish politics alongside the PiS Jarosław Kaczyński.
Liberal politician first took office as head of government in 2007. He previously demonstrated his rhetorical talent by winning a tv duel with Kaczyński. Polish journalists compared his kind of governance as Prime Minister to the method of then German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "driving on a vision", or pragmatic policy of tiny steps without large visions. Sam stated that his policy was to supply people with "warm water in the tap". This policy of tiny steps was a success - it was the first Polish Prime Minister since 1989 to win re-election in 2011.
From Warsaw to Brussels
Before the end of his second parliamentary word in 2014, Tusk moved to Brussels, where he served as president of the European Council until 2019. He then assumed the leadership of the European People's Party. In May 2021 he resigned prematurely and returned to Polish politics. There, his political opponents waited for him with fierce determination to prevent him from returning to power. They have repeatedly accused him of being the founder of European and German politics.
Donald Tusk in a white shirt with a red paper heart on his chest holding a microphone
Tusk has been the object of anti-German propaganda of national-conservative environments for decades. In 2005, his grandpa Joseph Tusk was accused of volunteering for the Wehrmacht. In fact, he was imprisoned in the German Stutthof concentration camp and incorporated into the German army. During the election campaign, PiS politicians called him a traitor and a collaborator. After the election of Tusk as head of government, Kaczyński angryly threw at him from the parliament speaker: "You are a German agent".
Tusk responded to the run of slander with restraint. His heart-shaped hands became a symbol of his campaign. He and his supporters wore red paper hearts on flaps during events and mass rallies - the March of the Million Hearts. This symbol besides greeted his supporters and opponents in the Sejm after the election as head of government.

Jacek Lepiarz writer of Polish-German editorial offices."

I don't comment. Link doesn't seem to be working anymore. Apparently, he's "updated."

The illustration besides comes from this article.

Honic