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Polish President Andrzej Duda has sworn in a new conservative government headed by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The government is not expected to last long and critics claim that Morawiecki wants to use the days before it is voted down to appoint new agency heads.
Morawiecki has been in the prime minister post since 2017 – but this time he is only expected to stay in power for two weeks. According to the Polish constitution, the newly appointed prime minister and his government have only 14 days before a vote of confidence is held in parliament. And then it will have no chance of getting a majority with it.
Lost the majority
President Andrzej Duda and Mateusz Morawiecki both belong to the national conservative right-wing Law and Justice (PIS) party.
Critics have said the outgoing party is using the time to make more appointments, which will expand its influence over government agencies even after the ruling party leaves power, the AP news agency reports. In recent days, PIS loyalists are said to have been nominated to lead the state audit body and the financial inspectorate.
The party has been in power in Poland for the past eight years, but in the elections in October, PIS did indeed become the single largest party, but the majority went to the collection of pro-EU opposition parties – the Citizens’ Coalition – which agreed to try to remove PIS from power.
Tuck likely successor
The Citizens’ Coalition is led by Donald Tusk, who was previously President of the European Council and Polish Prime Minister.
Tusk is expected to become prime minister again since Morawiecki and his new government – most likely – lost the confidence of parliament in December.
FACTS The parliamentary elections in Poland
Law and Justice received 35 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections held on 15 October. The right-wing nationalist party has strong ties to the Catholic Church and is led by 74-year-old Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Although PIS became the largest single party and won 194 seats out of the parliament’s total of 460 seats, the party has no chance against the opposition which secured 248 seats.
The opposition consists mostly of the Citizens’ Coalition, where former Prime Minister and President of the European Council Donald Tusk’s Citizens’ Platform party dominates. The alliance, which is EU-friendly and liberal, also includes the Greens and some smaller parties.
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