PULLING A TRUMP

Poland’s Duda swears in phoney PiS government with expected lifetime of two weeks

The line-up of the hugely controversial new PiS government that is expected to last just two weeks as the party lacks the majority to win a confidence vote / President Duda's office


By bne IntelliNews November 28, 2023

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda swore in a Law and Justice (PiS) government led by Mateusz Morawiecki on November 27 despite the proposed cabinet’s clear lack of majority in the new parliament that emerged after last month’s election.

PiS came in first in the election but is a considerable margin of 37 seats away from a majority in the parliament. Still, President Duda designated Morawiecki as PM in early November, saying it was a “good tradition” to give the party that won the most votes the first go at forming a government.

The centre-left coalition led by former PM and European Council President Donald Tusk decried Duda’s decision – and Morawiecki’s going along with it.

"Poles voted for a change for the better, not for a ludicrous two-week cabaret. It's a waste of time and a pity for Poland,” the expected deputy PM in the Tusk government, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the media.

President Duda kept up appearances during the swearing-in ceremony.

“I wish you good luck … The Prime Minister is conducting negotiations regarding support for this cabinet. I wish him every success in this regard,” said the president, who is a staunch ally of PiS.

The line-up of the “paragovernment” – as the incoming new majority has dubbed it – is mostly less-known officials linked to PiS. Ministers from the previous Morawiecki cabinet, which was in power from 2019 until November, include Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and Marlena Malag, who took over the Ministry of Development and Technology.

Former deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek and former deputy Justice Minister Marcin Warchol are now the heads of their respective ministries.

As the new cabinet is all but certain to lose a confidence vote in early December, the next step will be the Tusk-led parliamentary majority designating him as the next PM and a new confidence vote will be held.

The new majority has a comfortable 248 seats in the 460-seat parliament. The confidence vote marking the takeover of power by Tusk is expected to take place by mid-December.