Acting PM Morawiecki faces house confidence vote – DW – 12/11/2023

Poland‘s new parliament is expected to vote on Monday on whether acting Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki should form a new government following October’s elections. 

Morawiecki was scheduled to appeal for lawmakers’ support in a debate on Monday morning, with a vote likely later in the day. 

However, the 55-year-old is expected to lose. Morawiecki’s Law and Justice (PiS) party lost its majority but retained its status as the largest single party in October’s elections.

Should Morawiecki fail, that would open the door to the former Polish prime minister and former European Council president, Donald Tusk.

Tusk led a broad pro-EU opposition coalition in a bid to unseat PiS after two terms in power. 

Why is Morawiecki nominated if PiS lost its majority? 

The decision on who to nominate for the first shot at forming a government after an election rests with Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, previously a PiS ally. 

Duda nominated Morawiecki and PiS, despite them not commanding a majority, saying it was customary to give this chance to the largest party. 

Morawiecki’s interim government has technically been sworn in, but under the Polish rules it must win a confidence vote within two weeks to cement its position.

And what happens next?

If Morawiecki’s government fails, parliament is then supposed to put forward a candidate for a vote instead. 

This will most likely be Tusk, whose chances of winning the vote seem considerably better, and who has said he believes it’s only a matter of time until he emerges as the next prime minster. 

The alliance of pro-EU parties signed an agreement last month, paving the way for a coalition government.

What might change under a Tusk-led government? 

Tusk, Polish prime minister from 2007 to 2014 and then European Council president from 2014 to 2019, returned to front-line Polish politics as leader of his pro-European, centrist Civic Coalition in 2021. 

PiS has had a fraught relationship with the European Union since 2015, frequently in dispute with Brussels. 

Tusk has pledged to rebuild relations with Brussels on returning to power in Warsaw, partly with an eye to securing the release of EU funds that were frozen amid an ongoing standoff over the rule of law in Poland. 

rmt/msh (dpa, Reuters)