(Bloomberg) -- Donald Tusk pledged to rally flagging support for Ukraine among allies and put an end to Poland’s isolation within the European Union, sketching out a more assertive role for his country as he takes office as prime minister.

Former European Council president told lawmakers on Tuesday he’d had enough of European officials voicing their exhaustion with the war in Ukraine. The new pro-EU coalition “will return the country to the position it should have” in the bloc and remain a close ally of the US, he said. He spoke hours before his cabinet won a vote of confidence in parliament. 

“The new government’s task, but also the task of all of us, is to loudly and firmly demand full determination from the entire Western community to help Ukraine in this war,” Tusk said in Warsaw. “I’ll do this from day one.”

The return of the former European Council president to lead the EU’s sixth-largest economy promises to draw a line under eight years of rancorous nationalist rule. Poland’s initial embrace of Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February 2022 has been replaced by growing distrust, which culminated in a ban on grain imports and a month-long blockade of the border by Polish truckers.

Tusk, who governed Poland from 2007 to 2014, also said that his government will remain assertive toward its eastern neighbor when it comes to the interest of its farmers and companies.

Tusk’s remarks come during a critical week for Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is in Washington to make an urgent appeal to US congressional Republicans who are holding up more than $60 billion proposed by President Joe Biden. The EU’s €50 billion ($53.9 billion) package meanwhile is being blocked by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as part of a broader fight over the bloc’s budget. 

The impasse is likely to come to a head during a summit meeting of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday. Tusk said he will travel to Brussels with “the justified hope” that the bloc will find ways to continue defending Ukraine almost two years after the start of Russia’s invasion. He said leaders will “probably see” Zelenskiy during the summit.

The prime minister also told lawmakers that “anyone who questions Poland’s position in the EU, anyone who bets on a terrible game of isolation and loneliness” is “jeopardizing the fundamental interests of the republic.”

Tusk’s return coincides with the rise of far-right and populist forces from the Netherlands to Orban in Hungary and Slovakia’s re-elected leader Robert Fico. Tusk has promised to reverse democratic backsliding under the outgoing Law & Justice party and restore his country’s access to almost €60 billion in blocked financial aid. 

He said Poland may tap some the suspended funds as early as this week. 

“I’ll come back from Brussels with the money arranged — and do you know what I will tell Polish women and men?” Tusk asked lawmakers. “That we managed to be decent in the first few days of our rule and that it paid off for everyone.” 

--With assistance from Piotr Bujnicki, Maciej Martewicz and Wojciech Moskwa.

(Updates with vote of confidence in the second paragraph.)

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