Pro-European forces in Poland scored their first victory on Monday by electing their candidate for speaker of the lower house of parliament in the first session since October’s parliamentary elections.
Two opposing camps – the nationalist populists of the PiS until now in power, and the pro-European camp led by the former president of the European Council Donald Tusk – claim victory at the end of these elections and aspire to form the government.
The Law and Justice party (PiS) won the largest number of seats in Parliament but without the possibility of forming a majority, which on the other hand emerged for the pro-European forces.
On Monday, they elected one of their leaders, Szymon Holownia, to the post of president of the Diet (lower house).
Leader of the Christian Democratic party Poland 2050, he beat the PiS candidate, Elzbieta Witek, by 265 votes to 193, out of 460 deputies.
“After this vote, no one can any longer doubt that there is a majority in this Diet ready to take power,” Mr. Holownia declared to parliamentarians.
“The Diet will no longer be an office serving the government, it will no longer be a voting machine,” added this 47-year-old former Catholic journalist and television star.
According to the constitution, the President of Parliament is considered the second person in the country after the head of state and replaces him in the event of his death.
European forces also rejected the populists’ candidate for the post of vice-president of the Diet, with PiS denouncing “the violation of the basic rules of the parliamentary system”.
In the Senate, pro-European forces also elected their president, Ms.me Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska.
Earlier in the day, during an inaugural speech, Polish President Andrzej Duda, himself from the nationalist movement, said he was “ready” to cooperate with the new deputies.
But despite the electoral arithmetic, he chose to entrust the mission of forming a government to outgoing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who has resigned.
He formally resigned on Monday, but invited deputies from other parties to create “a coalition of Polish affairs”, to defend, according to him, the sovereignty of the country.
He made an anti-European speech, marked by attacks against a number of proposed modifications, notably voting arrangements, in the EU treaties which are the subject of discussions in the European Parliament.
During an official nomination ceremony on Monday evening, the president said he was “convinced” that Mr. Morawiecki would find the necessary majority to form a new cabinet of ministers.
The PiS, however, only has 194 seats out of 460 in the new Parliament, facing a declared majority of 248 deputies, members of three allied pro-European groups: the Electoral Coalition of Donald Tusk (centrist), the Christian Democratic formation the Third way which includes Poland 2050 and the PSL peasant party, as well as the Left.
The ultranationalist far right, which distances itself from the two major camps, has 18 deputies.
” Doomed to fail “
The PiS assures that it will “do everything” to be able to present its new government to the president, within the constitutional deadline of 14 days, then submit to the vote of confidence during the 14 days that follow.
“This mission is considered doomed to failure, grotesque,” underlines Stanislaw Mocek, sociologist and president of Collegium Civitas University in Warsaw.
According to him, this is a tactic to “play for time” and thus be able to complete various ongoing projects, benefit from additional funding, appoint representatives to important positions with sometimes irrevocable holders, and “ensure a soft landing” as well as “livelihoods during difficult times” that await the party if it goes into opposition.
“The PiS could choose the solution like Benjamin Netanyahu or Donald Trump: wait” for a new government to fall or lose in an upcoming election to try to return to power, believes political analyst Jaroslaw Kuisz.
“And in the meantime, he will be able to throw sand in the wheels at every opportunity that presents itself” and “sow bones of discord between the allies,” he adds.
For their part, the leaders of the three pro-European parties signed a formal coalition agreement on Friday which should serve as a “road map” for the alliance if it comes to power, with Donald Tusk as prime minister.
“We really want Poles to […] can see that, from now on, we are ready to take responsibility for our country,” explained Mr. Tusk.
According to the co-leader of the Left, Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, “the most important thing now is […] to build a tolerant, open Poland, built on the rule of law, responsible. A Poland with an important place within the European Union.”
The document presents the coalition’s position on burning issues such as the economic and environmental management of the country, the return to good relations with the EU, the reconstruction of public media, the separation of Church and State or abortion.
If Mr. Morawiecki fails to form a government, the opposition will likely take the reins of power only in mid-December.
The new Parliament will resume its session on Tuesday afternoon.