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FACTBOX-Facts about Polish PM candidate Donald Tusk

WARSAW
Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:52pm EDT

WARSAW (Reuters) - Below are some facts about Poland's Donald Tusk, whose centre-right Civic Platform party won a parliamentary election on Sunday and is expected to be the next prime minister.

World

* Tusk, 50, was a foot soldier in the anti-communist Solidarity movement in the 1980s.

* After the communist regime collapsed in 1989, he became a key figure in a free-market party that took part in Solidarity-led governments in the early 1990s.

* He set up the Civic Platform party in 2001 and has consistently promoted liberal free-market reforms.

* Tusk wants to cut red tape and lower taxes, promising an "economic miracle". He has never held any government post.

* Tusk is a native Kashubian, an ethnic minority in north-western Poland numbering around 300,000 people.

* His origins have posed problems because political opponents accused him of being too pro-German. He promises to restore good relations with Germany.

* A Catholic who describes himself as very stubborn, Tusk is married and has two children.

* Tusk lost parliamentary and presidential elections in 2005 and was written off at the time by many political commentators.

* Tusk's non-combative style and pro-European views have won him support from millions of young Poles.



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