In Poland, the opposition has agreed on a coalition agreement. She is still hoping for a takeover of power – even though the PiS has only just been commissioned to form a government. But it lacks coalition partners.
Almost four weeks have passed since the parliamentary elections in Poland – now the victorious alliance consisting of the three previous opposition parties has agreed to form a joint government. The liberal-conservative Citizens’ Coalition (KO), led by former EU Council President Donald Tusk, together with the conservative Third Way and the left-wing Lewica alliance, won a clear majority in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s ruling national-conservative PiS party lost its absolute majority, but remained the strongest force.
At the public signing of the coalition agreement in the parliament building in Warsaw, Tusk said this was “good news full of responsibility for our homeland.” The alliance is ready to take over the government immediately as soon as it receives an official order to form a government. “We have agreed on four years of good, hard work and solidarity,” he told reporters.
New Abortion law has priority
Robert Biedron, deputy leader of the Left, announced that one of the first measures after coming to power would be a new abortion law. Currently, Poland has an extremely strict abortion law that only allows abortions in a few exceptional cases such as danger to the woman’s life.
A few days earlier, however, President Andrzej Duda had made a controversial decision to further delay the transfer of power. On Monday, the head of state gave the previous Prime Minister Morawiecki the order to form a government. The head of state justified this step by following the good parliamentary tradition, according to which a representative of the strongest faction is given the task of forming a government.
The ruling PiS lost its absolute majority
The previous ruling party PiS became the strongest force in parliament in the election with 194 seats, but does not have a coalition partner. The opposition three-party alliance, however, won 248 of the 460 seats in the Sejm. This means that Morawiecki’s attempt to form a government is most likely doomed to failure.
Duda had previously set the date for the constituent session of the new parliament on November 13th – almost a month after the election, which took place on October 15th.