Almost four weeks after the parliamentary elections in Poland, the victorious opposition alliance agreed to form a joint government. However, it will probably be weeks before the three parties can actually take over government power. In the election on October 15, the liberal-conservative Citizens’ Coalition (KO), led by former EU Council President Donald Tusk, together with the conservative Third Way and the left-wing alliance Lewica, won a clear majority in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament.
At the public signing of the coalition agreement in the parliament building in Warsaw on Friday, 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 and solidarity-based work,” he told reporters.
As the PAP news agency reported, the coalition partners agreed to correct the judicial reforms criticized by the EU. “We will restore the legal order that was disrupted by the actions of our predecessors,” it says in the text of the coalition agreement. And further: “The courts will be free of political pressure, the public prosecutor’s office will be able to act independently and apolitically.” The previous opposition parties promised that the Constitutional Court, which was recently influenced by the national-conservative PiS government, should become independent again and that the judiciary as a whole should become closer to the citizens.
Robert Biedroń, deputy leader of the Left, also announced that one of the first measures after coming to power would be a new law regulating abortions. 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.
President Duda is delaying the transfer of power
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 Mateusz Morawiecki from the national conservative PiS the order to form a government. The head of state explained this step, which was criticized by the victorious opposition, in accordance with the good parliamentary tradition, according to which a representative of the strongest faction is given the task of forming a government.
The previous ruling party PiS became the strongest force in parliament in the election with 194 seats, but clearly missed an absolute majority and 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.