Brussels – It was a formal step, but still to be successfully completed. As of today (Dec. 12) Donald Tusk is the new prime minister of Poland, a return after a nine-year absence from national politics and with a mission to bring Warsaw back in line with the expectations of Brussels. After yesterday’s (Dec. 11) failure at the evidence of parliamentary vote of the ultra-conservative former prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, the leader of the popular center-right returned to the Sejm (the Lower House) to present his government program and receive the vote of confidence, thereby officially beginning his third stint as head of Poland’s government.
Deputies mandated Tusk to form a government yesterday, following the procedure envisaged by the Polish Constitution. After the
October 15 elections, the President of the Republic, Andrzej Duda, had decided
to entrust the outgoing PM Morawiecki with the mandate to try to find a majority in Parliament, as the leader of the leading political force (albeit coming off a tough defeat at the polls). After being rejected by 266 MPs out of 460, Morawiecki stepped aside, and Parliament appointed by another vote (248 in favor and 201 against) the new premier-designate. Within 24 hours, Tusk returned to the Sejm to list the points of his government program and to certify the majority – with the same votes as yesterday, 248 in favor, 201 against – comprised of the coalition parties united in the October elections: Civic Coalition (157), the Third Way Liberals (65) and the Social Democrats of Lewica (26). He will report to President Duda tomorrow morning to be sworn in along with his cabinet members.
“We need to speak with one voice, and we will demand the full mobilization of the West for Ukraine, I can no longer listen to politicians who say they are tired,” Tusk said in one of the strongest passages of his government presentation speech. On the issue of migration, the newly appointed prime minister made it clear that “we can protect the Polish and European border and be human at the same time. I am against the xenophobia introduced by the authorities in the public debate.” Not forgetting the rights of the LGBT+ community and especially women: “We have developed a program so that every Polish woman will perceive a change in the treatment of motherhood, protection of mothers, and access to legal abortion, from the first days we will take concrete actions.” And finally, Tusk took a clear stance on Warsaw’s role in the European Union, promising that “Polish people have no reason to feel an inferiority complex in the EU, we will return to our rightful place,” despite the Morawiecki government’s policies “could have cost us more than ridicule.”
Tusk’s return to the European Council
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And so, Tusk will return to sit immediately at the table of EU leaders at the European Council scheduled for Thursday and Friday (December 14-15). Precisely that same Council that, until 2019, was led by the one who, as of today, is back as prime minister of Poland and who, in the coming days, will take part in the tight discussions to try to overcome the obstructionist positions of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, now a former ally of Warsaw. Tusk’s experience and “dedication to European values” are considered
by all leaders of the EU institutions-who have already congratulated him on his appointment as prime minister-as necessary to “forge a stronger and more united Union.”
But it will be interesting to note how dialogue will also be set up with the Italian government of Giorgia Meloni. With Morawiecki’s failure, the premier and president of the Fratelli d’Italia party has lost her closest ally among the other 26 EU leaders (despite
evident contradictions between sovereignisms) with possible consequences for the Party of European Conservatives and Reformists (Ecr), led by Meloni herself. Law and Justice is one of the two most relevant parties in the conservative family, which is at the same time the biggest obstacle to a complicated pre- or post-election deal with Manfred Weber’s European People’s Party ahead of next year’s European elections. Italy’s vice-premier and foreign minister,Antonio Tajani on the other hand, was one of the very first politicians in Europe to extend congratulations to Tusk, who has not yet officially taken office as the new prime minister of Poland: “We will work together for an even stronger and united Europe under the banner of the values of the EPP,” the secretary of the Forza Italia party, a minority ally in the Fratelli d’Italia-led government wrote
on X.
