2023-11-06 20:53 update: 2023-11-07, 19:51
Andrzej Duda. Photo PAP/Przemysław Keler/KPRP
Andrzej Duda, Poland's president, announced his decision on nominating the incumbent prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, as the head of the new government following the October 15 general election.
"After a calm analysis and consultations run, I decided to entrust the mission of forming a government to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki," Duda said during a televised address on Monday evening.
"With that, I decided to continue the good parliamentary tradition, whereby the winning party is the first to be given the opportunity to form a government," he added.
The ruling socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) won the October 15 general election but lost their parliamentary majority. Therefore, three main opposition groupings, the liberal Civic Coalition (KO), the centre-right Third Way alliance and the New Left asked Duda to allow them to form a coalition government under the leadership of Donald Tusk, KO's leader.
Meanwhile, PiS has named the incumbent Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as their choice to lead the new government. But, given that all the other parties have ruled out a coalition with PiS, Morawiecki is unlikely to win a vote of confidence in parliament.
PiS has won 194 seats in the 460-member lower house, the Sejm, while the three opposition parties set on forming a coalition government enjoy a combined 248-seat majority.
On October 26, following two days of presidential talks with the political groups that had won parliamentary seats, Tusk and Morawiecki were also named by Duda as two candidates for prime minister in the new government.
Duda earlier announced he would convene the first session of the country's newly-elected parliament on November 13, which, under the Polish constitution, must happen within 30 days of the election.
The president then has 14 days to appoint the prime minister and task them with forming a government. The appointee has 14 days to secure a vote of confidence from lawmakers. If this attempt is unsuccessful, parliament then selects its own nominee for the head of the government. (PAP)
mr/jd
