Tusk abandons Poland to the shipyard workers

The celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the first partially free elections in Poland may take place in the city of Kraków and not in Gdańsk, as planned. The reason: the Gdańsk shipyard workers have threatened to disrupt the event in protest at the restructuring of Poland's shipyards. For Piotr Gabryel of the conservative paper Rzeczpospolita, this is a defeat for Polish prime minister Donald Tusk: "He has left Poland in the hands of the shipyard workers ... who have announced their protest for June 4 during the celebrations. A meeting of the leaders of many states - among them German chancellor Angela Merkel - had been planned for this day at the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers in Gdańsk. Now the Solidarność unionists have announced a demonstration to protect the shipyards for the same day. ... Donald Tusk stated on television: 'The celebrations marking the fall of communism planned for June 4 will be ineffectual if they are disrupted by the unionists."

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