Sitting Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is to present his new Cabinet and seek a vote of confidence from parliament in Warsaw on Monday following elections held almost two months ago that saw his Law and Justice Party (PiS) lose ground.
Morawiecki is seen as likely to lose the vote, opening the way for opposition leader Donald Tusk to take power at the head of a three-party coalition. Parliament is expected to ask Tusk, the leader of the Civic Platform (PO) party, to seek to form a government late on Monday.
The PO and its pro-EU allies emerged the clear winners in the October 15 elections, taking 248 seats in the 460-member lower house, the Sejm, well ahead of the 194 taken by the conservative, nationalist and populist PiS.
The alliance has already signed a coalition agreement and decided on how the portfolios will be divided up in a new Cabinet, while the PiS has been unable to find partners. It won an outright majority in the 2015 elections and has been in power since.
The likely change of g
overnment is set to bring changes in Poland’s foreign policy and put an end to long-running conflict with Brussels, primarily on account of changes to the judicial system introduced by the PiS.
Relations with Poland’s powerful western neighbour, Germany, also hit a low after demands from Poland for war reparations of pound 1.3 trillion ($1.4 trillion).
Tusk, prime minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014, and president of the European Council between 2014 and 2019, is likely to seek to mend relations with both the EU and Germany and to put greater distance between Poland and Hungary, another EU member in conflict with Brussels.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, a PiS member, used his office to delay the switch for as long as possible, tasking Morawiecki with forming a government after the elections and swearing in his Cabinet at the end of November despite the absence of a PiS-led majority.
Under the constitution, the incoming prime minister must seek a vote of confidence from the Sejm within 14 days. Morawi
ecki is doing so as the deadline runs out with little chance of success.
Source: Ghana News Agency