Despite the victory of a three-party opposition alliance in Poland’s parliamentary elections, President Andrzej Duda tasked former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki with forming a government. Duda said in Warsaw today that he believes Morawiecki can form a government.
In the October 15 elections, three pro-European parties led by former EU Council President Donald Tusk won a clear majority. The previously ruling national-conservative party, PiS, became the strongest force in parliament in the elections, with 194 seats, but failed to achieve an absolute majority and does not have a coalition partner.
Duda himself comes from the ranks of PiS. The opposition accuses him of wanting to use the maneuver to delay the change of government. Given that Morawiecki will not obtain a majority in parliament for his new cabinet, his mission is doomed to failure. Only then would it be the turn of the current opposition to form a government.
Pro-European camp appoints new parliamentary president
In the first session of the newly elected parliament in Poland, the previous opposition camp won its first victory: deputies elected the pro-European candidate Szymon Holownia as the new parliamentary president in Warsaw.
“After this vote, there can no longer be any doubt that there is a majority in this parliament that is ready to take power,” Holownia said after his election. In Poland, the position of Speaker of Parliament is considered the second most important in the state, after the President. In the upper house, Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, the pro-European candidate, was also elected president of the Senate.