Poland’s President Duda signals Tusk will have
bumpy ride as PM
The president and the prime minister will have to get
along for two years. There’s already friction.
BY WOJCIECH
KOŚĆ
NOVEMBER
21, 2023 4:00 AM CET
https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-president-andrzej-duda-not-abiding-incoming-pm-donald-tusk/
WARSAW — A
war of words has broken out between Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and Donald
Tusk, the likely head of the next government, presaging what’s looking to be a
difficult cohabitation between the political rivals.
“I am the
president, but Donald Tusk is not my candidate for prime minister,” Duda told
the right-wing Sieci weekly.
Duda,
originally a European Parliament backbencher from the Law and Justice (PiS)
party before becoming president in 2015, has long been loyal to the nationalist
party.
Rather than
simply rolling over and allowing Tusk to set Poland on a new course in line
with the EU mainstream, Duda is laying down a gauntlet that he will use his
presidential powers to thwart a new administration.
Tusk and
his allies have promised wrenching changes to the PiS program — rolling back
draconian restrictions on abortion, limiting the role of religion in the
education system, and firing PiS loyalists in media and state companies. The
likely incoming government also wants to undo years of judicial reforms that
were aimed at bringing judges under tighter political control but which ignited
a battle with the EU that saw Brussels punish Warsaw by withholding billions in
EU funds over rule of law concerns.
The problem
for Tusk is that many of those changes require new laws, and Duda wields a
presidential veto that will be very difficult to overcome.
“I have
used the veto more than once. I will not hesitate to do so again,” Duda told
the weekly.
After the
October 15 election, where a coalition of opposition parties won a
parliamentary majority, Duda still chose outgoing PiS Prime Minister Mateusz
Morawiecki to take the first try at forming a government. It’s an effort that’s
almost certain to fail over the next three weeks, as Law and Justice has only
194 seats in the 460-member parliament, and has been shot down as a partner by
other parties.
Duda went
on to say that the coalition deal between Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition, the
center-right Third Way and the Left “did not convince me that it is worth
giving up the good parliamentary tradition, according to which the winning
party or coalition is the first to receive the mandate to form a government.”
He also
hammered the opposition parties for not presenting him with a convincing
program.
Tusk, who
served as PM from 2007 to 2014 before shifting to Brussels to be European
Council president, slapped back at Duda.
“President
Duda said: ‘Tusk won’t be my prime minister.’ I confirm that. I won’t be,” Tusk
tweeted.
Tusk and
his coalition are likely to take power next month, once Morawiecki tries and
fails to win a parliamentary vote of confidence.
However,
Duda’s second and final term as president ends in 2025, so he’ll have to rub
along with a Tusk-led administration for two years.
“Throughout
his life and political experience, President Andrzej Duda shows that he is on a
completely different side of the political scene than Donald Tusk,” Michał
Dworczyk, a PiS minister, told Polish television.
The
proposed coalition headed by Tusk has 248 seats in the lower house of
parliament, a solid majority but far from the 276 votes needed to override any
veto from Duda.
The
president is already sending up warning flares.
In a speech
to parliament a week ago, Duda defended the record of the outgoing PiS
government and issued a threat to veto legislation that he feels might undo the
party’s flagship achievements like expanded social welfare payments or any
attempts to “limit, undermine or question the constitutional powers of the
president.”
For more
polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.
He also
warned the new government about its desire for “revenge” against PiS after its
eight years in power.
The
coalition agreement pledges to investigate and prosecute anyone responsible for
breaking the law, misspending public funds or violating the constitution.
Before the
election, Civic Coalition said it would haul Duda before the State Tribunal, a
special body that tries senior officials, for appointing improperly nominated
judges in a bid to support PiS’s judicial reforms.
“Violations
of the constitution and the rule of law will be swiftly called to account and
judged,” said its 100-point electoral program.
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