Poland's Tusk seeks fresh start after presidential election blow

Straits Times

2 days ago

FILE PHOTO: Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk talks to the press after their meeting on May 16, 2025 in Tirana, Albania. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS//File Photo
WARSAW - A vote of confidence in Poland's government will take place on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk seeks to regain the initiative for his ruling pro-European coalition after it was shaken by a presidential election defeat.
Rafal Trzaskowski from Tusk's Civic Coalition was defeated by nationalist Karol Nawrocki in the June 1 ballot, unleashing recriminations from smaller partners in government and casting doubt over the administration's future when a hostile president wields the power of veto.
While the ruling alliance's majority means it is almost certain to win Wednesday's vote, a SW Research poll for Rzeczpospolita daily showed that around a third of Poles thought Tusk's government would not survive until the end of its term in 2027.
Tusk will present his government's plan of action to parliament. A debate will then take place before the vote is held in the afternoon.
Analysts say that many voters are disillusioned with the government's failure to deliver on promises including liberalising abortion laws, reforming the judiciary and raising the tax-free limit.
President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the nationalist Law and Justice party, known as PiS, that backed Nawrocki, has stymied elements of the government's programme that aim to roll back PiS reforms that the European Union said undermined judicial independence.
The government had hoped for a Trzaskowski victory that would give it the freedom to fully implement its agenda.
Critics say that since it took office in December 2023, Tusk's government has done too little to implement change, with initiatives put on hold in the ultimately futile hope that a sympathetic president would be elected.
'NEW MOMENTUM'
It was against this background, and with voices in smaller coalition parties and normally sympathetic media outlets raising questions about his leadership, that Tusk called the vote of confidence.
"This vote of confidence is not an attempt to continue everything we have been doing because we know well after this year and a half that some things can be done better, faster and this vote of confidence should be a new beginning," he told a government meeting.
"I would like you to know that for the entire... coalition, this is to be a day of new momentum and I am convinced that you will live up to this task."
After the vote of confidence, Tusk has said there will be a government reshuffle, which is likely to be in July. Meanwhile, members of the administration say that their coalition agreement will also need to be renegotiated, a process that could lead to conflict.
PiS has relished the situation.
Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski proposed that a "technical government" made up of experts should be put in place immediately to restore calm.
Former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the architect of the judicial reforms Tusk's government has sought to overhaul, was more direct.
"The lost presidential election is the end of Donald Tusk," he told reporters. "His fate is already sealed." REUTERS
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