The barriers in front of the Sejm in the center of Warsaw are gone. Many Polish commentators that day saw this as the clearest sign that new times were dawning. For a long time, the entrances to the Polish House of Commons had been secured with iron bars; it had a deterrent effect. Of course there are still security entrances, not everyone can just go into the House of Representatives. But the barriers were dismantled by citizens and they were left to their own devices.
The new legislative period began in Poland this Monday, and the majority in the Sejm and Senate has changed. But there is no new government yet. Andrzej Duda had postponed the first meeting as long as possible. This Monday at 12 noon, the President called the first session of the Polish lower house after the elections on October 15th. “I declare my willingness to work with the new parliament,” he said in his speech on Monday afternoon.
Tusk wants to restore the rule of law and separation of powers
This led to laughter on the benches of the previous opposition, which now wants to take over the government. Three party alliances have committed to working together even before the election. After the election it became clear that Donald Tusk’s conservative-liberal citizens’ coalition, the Christian-green alliance “Third Way” and the Left have 248 seats in the Sejm, which is easily enough for a joint majority with a total of 460 seats. The newly elected Senate met for the first time at 4 p.m. in the afternoon, and the Tusk camp was able to expand its majority in the upper house.
However, President Duda stated that on Monday evening he would first give the order to form a government to the current Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. His right-wing nationalist Law and Justice party, PiS, had once again become the strongest force, but has lost its majority. It has 194 seats – and cannot find a partner.
Donald Tusk’s camp, on the other hand, had already signed a coalition agreement on Friday. The four parties want to restore the rule of law and the separation of powers and depoliticize the state media. It’s about better health care, protecting the environment and climate, non-ideological education, and it also includes a commitment to equality for all sexual orientations.
But the coalition partners still need patience. Poles still expect up to two weeks in which the PiS party can officially try to save their power. Nobody seriously expects her to succeed. The Sejm deputies are then allowed to choose a candidate to form a government. That will probably be Donald Tusk.
The left wants to legalize abortion
The chairman of PiS once again expressly warned about this on Saturday, Poland’s Independence Day. Jarosław Kaczyński said Poland’s independence was threatened again – by the EU. Above all through the plan to abandon the principle of unanimity in voting. Germany and France were thus expanding their influence, said the 74-year-old, and combined this with a warning against Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party: “That’s why we are fighting to ensure that there will be no government of the Civic Platform, because it is actually a German party. “
The fact that PiS is being pushed out of power was also shown by the election of Sejm Marshal Szymon Hołownia, who received 265 votes. The PiS party lost the position of chairman of the lower house. And the Left wanted to introduce two bills on the first day of the meeting. The Left is determined to legalize abortions and enforce a time limit until the end of the twelfth week of pregnancy. The citizens’ coalition also made this election promise.
But the “Third Way” stands in the way. This electoral alliance between the Christian environmental party Polska 2050 and the farmers’ party PSL unites the Christian-conservative view of family policy. Both parties want a return to the abortion law before the PiS, which provided for more exceptions to the abortion ban. They just don’t go along with legalization.
No “freezer” for controversial projects
“The suffering of women has no political color,” said left-wing politician Robert Biedroń on the private television station TVN. He called on the “Third Way” not to stand in the way and recalled the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in many Polish cities who had protested against strict abortion rights.
Surveys show that between 70 and 80 percent of people in Poland support the legalization of abortions. Many women also voted because of the hope of a liberal law; the parties and several women’s and civil rights organizations specifically called on women to vote. Voter turnout among women was slightly higher.
The chairman of Polska 2050, Szymon Hołownia, said that these projects would be processed “of course” and that, unlike in the PiS government, there was no “freeze” for controversial projects. In the new Sejm, almost a third of the representatives are women.