WARSAW — After eight years in power, Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party was voted out of office on Monday; by evening, Donald Tusk was approved by parliament as the nominee to head a new government that’s promising a revolution in both domestic politics and in Warsaw’s relationship with the outside world.
The day began with PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki setting out the agenda of his proposed government to the Polish parliament. On Monday afternoon he went down to a widely expected defeat, losing a vote of confidence by 190 to 266 in the 460-member assembly, with MPs breaking out into cheers of “Donald Tusk! Donald Tusk!”
“It’s the end of Polish democracy,” Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS and Poland’s de facto ruler since 2015, said after the confidence vote.
That shifted the initiative to the parliament, with the parties backing Tusk nominating him as their candidate for PM. After a series of speeches, Tusk received the backing of 248 MPs with 201 opposed.
“I want to thank the Polish people,” Tusk told cheering MPs. “Thank you Poland, this is a great day, not for me, but for all those who for these long years deeply believed that it will still be better, that we will chase away the darkness, chase away the evil.”
He concluded: “We will fix everything together. From tomorrow, we will be able to right the wrongs so that everyone can feel at home without exception.”
Immediately after MPs sang the national anthem, a furious Kaczyński stormed to the parliament’s podium and yelled at Tusk: “You are a German agent!”
On Tuesday at 9 a.m., Tusk presents his Cabinet to parliament and lays out his governing program. Parliament is scheduled to hold a vote of confidence at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Duda’s office has said that the president will be prepared to swear in the new government as of Wednesday morning. If possible, Tusk wants to be at the EU-Balkan summit on Wednesday evening, and he certainly wants to be in Brussels on Thursday for the start of the EU leaders’ summit where he will herald a dramatic change in Warsaw’s approach to Brussels and aim to end eight years of conflict.
A man with a plan
Tusk — who served as Poland’s prime minister from 2007 to 2014 before being European Council president from 2014 to 2019 — laid out his priorities in a Friday news conference.
A key aim will be unblocking €35 billion in grants and loans from the EU’s pandemic relief program and another €76.5 billion of regular EU development money. The cash has been blocked by the European Commission until Poland meets agreed milestones on rolling back changes to the justice system that Brussels felt brought judges under political control.
“We’re working non-stop,” Tusk said, adding he’s formed a team with incoming Justice Minister Adam Bodnar and Europe Minister Adam Szłapka to tackle the issue — one of the key promises he made during the election campaign. The new foreign minister will be Radosław Sikorski, a member of the European Parliament who served as Tusk’s foreign minister from 2007 to 2014.
But actually passing new laws on the judicial system will require they be signed by Duda; if he vetoes them, the incoming coalition doesn’t have the votes to override him. And so far, the president has indicated he’s willing to fight to prevent that from happening. During the last week he swore in 76 judges named by the flawed judicial nomination body condemned by the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Commission as not meeting democratic standards.
“What decisions will he make?” presidential Minister Wojciech Kolarski asked about Tusk. “Will he be on this wave of euphoria still lingering on the side of the opposition combined with an obvious need for revenge? Unfortunately that’s the way it looks like now. Or will he seek agreement with the president on the most important issues for Poland?”
But Tusk doesn’t plan to retreat.
“We are working intensively … on a whole set of measures that will restore the rule of law as much as possible,” Tusk said.
Tusk also warned that anyone who broke the law during the past eight years of PiS rule will be held to account.
“There will be no accommodation with evil. If they broke the law, if they stole, if they lied for public money, they must answer for it,” he said.
Tusk was also scathing of Morawiecki’s brief interregnum — the shortest term of office for a government in post-communist Polish history.
“These two weeks are costing Poland gigantic amounts of money,” Tusk said. “It is a waste of money, a waste of time and an attempt to leave a sort of PiS fifth column in all places where it is possible. We will have to start this cleanup rapidly and with very decisive steps.”
This article has been updated.