The Polish parliament will soon vote on a motion of confidence in the government, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.
Tusk announced the vote shortly after Karol Nawrocki’s victory in the presidential election, who is supported by the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS, of which he himself is not a member). This party is demanding the government’s resignation.
The prime minister, who is a co-founder of the liberal Civic Platform party, thanked all Polish voters for participating in the presidential election. He noted that he recognises Nawrocki’s victory, “regardless of how we assess him.”
“In accordance with the Constitution and our own conscience,” the current cabinet will co-operate with the new president where “necessary and possible,” Tusk said. However, this may be more difficult than with his predecessor, he acknowledged. Andrzej Duda currently holds the office of President of Poland.
The prime minister said that the government had already prepared an “emergency plan” for difficult co-operation. Its implementation will require “unity and courage” from coalition partners, and the first test of this unity will be a vote of confidence in Tusk’s cabinet, which he will submit to the Sejm.
“It is difficult to predict what the new president’s attitude will be. If he expresses a desire to co-operate, it will be a positive surprise, but we will respond with complete openness,” Tusk said. He also added that he would “not delay for a minute in his work and our common struggle for Poland — free, sovereign, safe and prosperous.”
Nawrocki, 42, is a historian specialising in anti-communist resistance in Poland; in 2021, he became president of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). PiS proposed convening a “technical government” and dismissing the current one.
The party currently has a relative majority in parliament with 194 seats. The Civic Coalition, which Tusk’s Civic Platform belongs to, has 157 seats. There are 460 deputies in total in the Polish Sejm.
