Warsaw:Polish lawmakers gathered on Monday for a session during which former European Council president Donald Tusk is expected to be tapped to form a new government in the country ruled for the last eight years by right-wing populists.
Three pro-EU opposition parties won a majority in a parliamentary vote on October 15 on pledges that included mending strained ties with the European Union and carrying out liberal reforms.
“December 11 in the parliament… will be an epochal moment in the history of Poland,” the lower chamber’s speaker Szymon Holownia of the liberal Third Way party said Monday.
But President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the outgoing government, entrusted the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party with first attempt to form a government led by outgoing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Presenting his general programme in the parliament on Monday — in the presence of notably the anti-communist icon Lech Walesa — Morawiecki said he was sure that the “project” PiS had for Poland “must win and will win”.
“Maybe not yet today, not in this chamber,” Morawiecki conceded, referring to a confidence vote scheduled for the afternoon that he is set to lose.
If his government does not win enough support, lawmakers will nominate a new candidate for prime minister and are set to name Tusk, a former premier and the Civic Coalition bloc leader.
Civic Coalition along with the Third Way and Left parties control 248 seats out of 460 in parliament.
The PiS nationalists came first in the elections, winning 194 seats, but fell short of a majority.
Once nominated, Tusk is due on Tuesday to present his programme to MPs who will then hold a confidence vote.
The Tusk cabinet could be sworn in on Wednesday, allowing him to travel to Brussels for an EU summit on Thursday and Friday as the new prime minister.
Tusk has promised to unblock billions of euros in EU aid that have been frozen because of long-standing tensions between Brussels and the outgoing government.
The former prime minister has also said he will restore Poland’s credibility in the EU and give it an important voice amid the ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine.