Donald
Tusk will call vote of confidence after Polish election setback
Prime
minister seeks to shore up his fragile coalition and vows not to back down
Jakub Krupa
in Warsaw
Mon 2 Jun
2025 20.58 BST
Donald Tusk
says he will call a vote of confidence in his government to try to shore up
support for his coalition after a bruising setback in Poland’s presidential
election.
In his first
public comments since Sunday’s election result was declared, the prime minister
sought to regain momentum as he promised to “get to work” and submit a number
of draft laws.
Congratulating
the rightwing opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki’s supporters on his win, Tusk
said late on Monday the government had a “contingency plan” and vowed to “not
stop even for a moment” and double down on his legislative agenda.
In a
televised prime-time statement, he said he wanted “everyone, including our
opponents at home and abroad, to see … we understand the gravity of the moment,
but will not back down a single step”. He said he would seek a parliamentary
vote to confirm his majority.
The dramatic
move highlights the government’s difficult position as it comes to terms with
the consequences of losing the race for the presidency.
Tusk leads
an ideologically diverse and politically fragile alliance of pro-European
parties, from agrarian right to social democratic left, which promised to
reverse the erosion of democratic checks and balances that had marked the
eight-year rule of the Law and Justice party (PiS).
After 18
months of difficult cohabitation with the outgoing president and PiS ally,
Andrzej Duda, the government had hoped Rafał Trzaskowski, a pro-European Warsaw
mayor, would win the election and lift the threat of a presidential veto on
progressive legislation.
But Sunday’s
defeat will make it very difficult for the government to deliver on its
promises, extending the political stalemate.
Nawrocki,
who received public backing from senior members of the Trump administration, is
fiercely critical of the EU and likely to ally himself wherever he can with
other Eurosceptic leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. This risks divisions
within the bloc at a time when it faces major challenges, including US tariffs
and the war in Ukraine.
While the
role of president is largely ceremonial, with some influence over foreign and
defence policy, it carries the critical power to veto laws, which can be
overturned only with a 60% majority in parliament, which Tusk’s coalition does
not have.
No date for
the vote of confidence has been set, but it could take place as early as this
week because parliament is scheduled to sit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Unless
there is a rebellion, the ruling coalition has enough votes in parliament to
win.
A clear win
would also quash any talk about a potential alternative majority emerging on
the right should some government MPs defect to the opposition camp.
Speaking
just minutes before Tusk, PiS leader and former prime minister Jarosław
Kaczyński argued the election result amounted to “a red card” for the
government, urging the prime minister to resign.
In a thinly
veiled invitation to other parties to explore an alternative majority, he
called for a “technical government” to replace the current administration,
conceding that it could even be led by a prime minister who “would not
necessarily have any ties to us.”.
Seeking to
undermine the coalition, he stressed the government could enjoy friendly
relations with the new president and could “restore calm in Poland, ease
tensions, and improve the situation across all key areas of our social life”.
On Sunday, a
senior PiS lawmaker, Przemysław Czarnek, suggested his party could soon start
trying to pick off members of Tusk’s broad and already fractured coalition,
with the aim of creating a rightwing majority in parliament.
“I can
reassure you that maybe not starting tomorrow, but from Tuesday, we will begin
very energetic work in order to give the Polish people another gift – the end
of Tusk’s government,” Czarnek said.
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