Polish lawmakers will hold a vote of confidence in the government on June 11th, prime minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday as he seeks to shore up his centre-left coalition after Sunday’s presidential election loss.
Mr Tusk’s candidate for president, liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, lost the ballot to Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki in a blow to the government’s efforts to cement Warsaw’s pro-European orientation.
“This vote is not an effort to continue what we had been doing before because we know that some things can be done better, faster,” Mr Tusk told reporters. “This is meant as a day of a new momentum.”
Political observers say Mr Tusk’s Sunday election loss was in part a sign of growing discontent with his government’s progress in making good on election promises that propelled him to power 18 months ago. A CBOS poll from late May showed only 32 per cent of Poles supported the current government.
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Mr Tusk’s coalition ended eight years of nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) rule in 2023, with the centrist former European Council president vowing to repair what he says was damage to democratic rule and women’s and minority rights under his predecessors.
Mr Nawrocki built his campaign in recent months on a pledge to prioritise the needs of Poles over those of migrants or refugees from the Ukraine war, in echoes of US president Donald Trump’s Maga rhetoric.
He is likely to use his presidential veto to thwart Mr Tusk’s liberal policy agenda.
Mr Tusk has a comfortable majority in parliament, but some commentators have said Tusk’s difficulties over the last 18 months came in part from frictions between his leftist and centre-right allies over issues such as abortion.
One of the key promises of his government was a plan to ease the country’s near-total abortion ban introduced under the PiS government.
“There is a fundamental question here: what is the goal of Tusk’s coalition,” said Anna Materska-Sosnowska from Warsaw University.
“Is it about more than just parliamentary or government positions? If yes, then the coalition needs to put its own ambitions aside and play for the same team.”
But while he may have room to build more effective consensus within the coalition, Mr Tusk is likely to struggle to persuade Mr Nawrocki, an arch-conservative, to back policies such as more access to abortion.
Outgoing president Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, had made it clear he would veto any such efforts, and Mr Nawrocki said he would follow him. – Reuters
