Tusk-Kaczynski, and uneasy marriage

Tusk won. The twins made enemies across the European Union and also in this blog. Finally, the rightist prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, conceded defeat. But is brother, Lech, will remain president until 2010 and retain veto power over the presumptive new government's legislation. He will form an uneasy cohabitation with the Tusk Government. He will be able to block, at least for a short while, some foreign policy initiatives.

Official results on Tuesday will determine whether Civic Platform achieves an outright majority or more likely needs to form a coalition with the centrist Polish Peasants Party. But Kaczynski is left without any significant partner.

Exit polls awarded 43.7 per cent to Civic Platform, compared with 30.4 per cent for the Law and Justice party. In theory Tusk could form an alliance with the third-place Left and Democracy party, which won 13.3 per cent of the vote, or the Peasants’ Party (PSL), which picked up just over 8 per cent. Neither of Kaczynski’s former coalition allies – the clericalist League of Polish Families and the rural Self-Defence grouping – won enough votes to be represented in parliament.

The Times says that Tusk is likely to choose Radek Sikorski – who made his name as a journalist in Britain in the 1980s – as Foreign Minister.

Traslation of the joke: "Platforma is happy that Lech is back to politics". Thanks, Andrius.