Thus Der Spiegel today. “With the appointment of Donald Tusk as president of the powerful EU Council, a politician from Eastern Europe will be placed in one of Brussels’ most important positions for the first time,” elaborates the newspaper. “The former Polish leader could become a key voice in the crisis with Russia.” The former prime minister is hailed as a radical pragmatist, whatever that means. Reading the article, though, I could not shake off an old Polish joke from my mind. By coincidence, Josef Stalin, Konrad Adenauer, and Wladyslaw Gomulka all died on the same day, and so they showed up together at Saint Peter’s, who offered each of them a single wish. Stalin wished all Germans to disappear from the face of the earth. Adenauer wished all Russians to disappear from the face of the earth. Saint Peter made their wishes come true at once. When Gomulka’s term came, all he wished was a cup of coffee. So much for a Pole brokering peace between Germans and Russians, of all peoples. The enthusiastic article left me kind of cold, I must admit.