EU's Juncker says it's "unacceptable" to link Tusk to Hitler and Stalin in Poland
BRUSSELS - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday it was "totally unacceptable" to associate fellow top EU official Donald Tusk with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, as has been done by Polish state TV.
Tusk, an ex-Polish prime minister and an arch-rival of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party now governing in Warsaw, delivered a stinging critique of the government in a speech during a visit to the capital last week.
Poland's state TV broadcaster, tightly controlled by the PiS since the party came to power in late 2015, reacted with a clip seeking to discredit Tusk as a politician more inclined to serve the interests of Germany than of Poland.
Next to Tusk's image, the clip showed pictures of Stalin and Hitler, whose Soviet Union and Nazi Germany respectively invaded Poland in 1939. Millions of Poles lost their lives under occupation during World War Two.
In his speech, Tusk told the eurosceptic PiS to stop flouting the rule of law and Poland's own constitution.
