Poland’s pro-EU ruling coalition won a parliamentary vote of confidence yesterday, a boost Prime Minister Donald Tusk hopes will bolster his cabinet shaken by the defeat of its candidate in the 1 June presidential election runoff. The defeat of Tusk’s Civic Coalition candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski, by nationalist Karol Nawrocki sparked discontent among the smaller partners in the coalition, who were concerned about the government’s ability to deliver, constrained by a hostile president equipped with veto powers.
Tusk’s broad coalition holds 242 of the 460 parliamentary seats, so a defeat in the vote of confidence was unlikely. Nonetheless, he expressed relief at the outcome, declaring that he needed the vote given the “speculation that this government will not make it, that Tusk may be taken down, and you cannot work under such conditions.” There was still the need to regain the electorate’s confidence, he said. “We need to do much more.”
Prior to the vote, Tusk cited how his administration had raised defence spending and cut back on migrant visas since he took office in December 2023, succeeding the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), which backed Nawrocki’s winning campaign for the presidency. Tusk again pledged to sustain the drive to reverse the judicial measures implemented by PIS that the European Union contends undermine the independence of Poland’s court system. To date, outgoing Polish president Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, has blocked the Tusk government’s attempts to reverse the judicial reforms.
Many Polish voters are reportedly disillusioned with the government’s failure to deliver on promises, including liberalising abortion laws, reforming the judiciary and raising the threshold at which Poles start paying taxes. In an interview, President-elect Nawrocki told yesterday’s Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily that he would sign a law to raise the tax-allowance threshold, saying he was prepared to submit the bill himself if the government did not. Noting that the government had failed to deliver on the 100 promises it made for its first 100 days, Nawrocki said he would “do (them) for Donald Tusk. Isn’t that conciliatory?”.
Tusk has indicated a government reshuffle is scheduled, probably next month. Meanwhile, the coalition agreement may also need to be reconfigured. A gleeful PiS party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has called for a “technical government” consisting of experts, saying it should be established immediately to restore calm.
