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The Polish parliament is set to hold a confidence vote in his coalition government on June 11, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday.
He called the vote on Monday, a day after his ally, liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, lost Sunday’s presidential runoff.
“We are starting the session in a new political reality,” Tusk said at the start of a cabinet meeting in Warsaw.
“The political reality is new, because we have a new president. But the constitution, our obligations and the expectations of citizens have not changed. In Poland, the government rules, which is a great obligation and honour.”
Trzaskowski’s defeat at the polls to conservative Karol Nawrocki leaves Tusk politically weakened, and there are questions about whether his multi-party coalition can survive to the end of its term in late 2027.
Tusk’s government runs most of the day-to-day matters in Poland and exists separately from the presidency, but the president holds power to veto laws and Nawrocki’s win is expected to make it difficult for Tusk to press his pro-European agenda.
He came to power in late 2023 in a coalition government with a broad ideological divide and has been unable to muster enough support to fulfil specific electoral promises, such as easing abortion law.
Nawrocki, who was supported by US President Donald Trump, will succeed incumbent President Andrzej Duda, whose second and final term ends on 6 August.
The 42-year-old amateur boxer and political novice is supported by the conservative Law and Justice or PiS party, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023.
Party leader Jarosław Kaczyński appealed on Monday to all political forces to support the formation of a technocratic government.
“Today we need a solution in the form of a technical government, which, like the president, will be non-partisan. The head of this government must be selected in talks with those who would be ready to support such a project. It would not have to be someone who has ties to us,” he said.
“Individual ministries would be managed by specialists in specific areas of social life.”
Nawrocki won 50.89% of the votes in Sunday’s runoff, with Rafał Trzaskowski finishing second with 49.11%.
