Polish president re-appoints Morawiecki amid accusations of ‘buying’ time

President Andrzej Duda appointed current Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to form a government on Monday, giving priority to Law and Justice (PiS, ECR), amid accusations of buying time to milk public funds, destroy documents, take strategic decisions and – with no chances – try to find a majority.

Despite an appeal by the opposition camp led by Donald Tusk that seems more certain to have a parliamentary majority after October’s general elections, Duda decided to give preference to PiS, his own grouping, as the party that had gained the most votes.

“I decided to continue the good parliamentary tradition according to which it is the winning grouping that first gets the chance to form a government,” Duda said in a televised address on Monday (6 October) evening.

For PiS, it is going to be extremely difficult to rise to the challenge, given it only took 194 seats in the 460-member Sejm, the lower house of parliament, compared to 248 seats secured by the opposition camp, consisting of Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO, EPP/Greens), centre-green Poland 2050 (Renew), centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL, EPP) and the Left (S&D).

The only chance for PiS to secure a majority might be to convince right-leaning PSL to cooperate, which Duda seems to count on, considering he nominated PSL’s longtime MP Marek Sawicki for the largely honorary post of senior speaker of the Sejm.

Morawiecki earlier said he would appeal to PSL for support. Still, as the party is a part of the Third Way alliance together with Poland 2050, PSL declared it had no interest in joining a coalition with PiS.

After Duda’s announcement, Morawiecki called his nomination “an honour, but also a challenge,” on X (formerly Twitter). He invited “all the lawmakers that put Poland first” to collaborate with PiS.

PiS has ruled Poland since 2015. Over that time, it embroiled the country in a conflict with Brussels over the rule of law, with the PiS government accused by Brussels of politicising the judiciary system and violating fundamental and media freedom.

If it succeeds in staying in power, PiS is most likely to continue its obstructive policy on migration and asylum reform and reforming the EU treaties, a trend which many Western capitals hope will end with the Tusk-led camp coming to the rules. This may not necessarily be the case, though, as Euractiv reported last month.

Playing for time

As the president has long been waiting to announce his nomination as prime minister, many opposition politicians and the media, including Rzeczpospolita news outlet, said he played for time to give PiS a chance to overcome the obstacles and gain a majority, a theory which has only strengthened now, with Duda nominating Morawiecki for PM.

“Appointing Mateusz Morawiecki is not only a game for time, but also playing on voters’ emotions,” Mayor of Warsaw and KO member Rafał Trzaskowski wrote on X platform, calling the president’s attitude “extremely irresponsible.”

KO MP Dariusz Joński agreed with that opinion and named three reasons for Duda to prolong the process of the transition of power in the country.

“The first one is an attempt (by the ruling camp) to siphon off public money through subsidies, grants and, above all, awards to government members,” he told Euractiv Poland.

The second reason is the ongoing process of destroying documents in ministries that could incriminate the ruling party, Joński said.

PiS’ destroying documents in the face of the electoral failure started as a viral joke on social media until the media published pictures of trucks of companies professionally destroying documents leaving the ministerial buildings.

The third reason for Duda to play for time is to give PiS time to make some strategic decisions the outgoing government should not make anymore, including on the investors for the building of the large CPK airport that would replace Warsaw’s Chopin Airport, according to Joński.

“In any way, PiS does not want to give up power,” the opposition lawmaker said.

He believes Duda wants to remain loyal to his political camp as he counts for the position of PiS’ head after the party’s current leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, retires.

Over his presidency Duda has never been able to gain independence from his camp, unlike his predecessors, Civic Platform’s (PO, EPP) Bronisław Komorowski and Democratic Left Alliance (currently the Left, S&D) Aleksander Kwaśniewski.

The nomination of the new prime minister took longer than both in 2007 and 2015, when it involved the transition of the ruling camp, not to mention the election years when the same camp stayed in power, in 2012 and 2019, Jarosław Flis, Professor of Social Studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, told Euractiv Poland.

Asked if he shares the opinion that Duda is playing on time with the nomination of prime minister, he said: “It is hard to explain the current situation otherwise.”

PiS uncertain of its chances

“The president is acting in accordance with the prerogatives given to him by the constitution,” PiS MEP Ryszard Legutko replied to Euractiv Poland for the same question.

As the PM nominee, Morawiecki has to present his new cabinet to Duda within two weeks of the new parliament being summoned, with an inauguration session scheduled for 13 November.

Then, he will have two more weeks to present his program and hold a confidence vote. Should he fail, the parliament would propose its own candidate, which would probably result in Tusk’s camp winning a bid to form his government.

“If the mission of the representative of Law and Justice fails then, in the next step, it will be the parliament that will choose a candidate for prime minister, and I will immediately appoint him to the post,” Duda said in his address.

When asked if he believes that PiS stands to gain a majority in the face of PSL’s preference to cooperate with other opposition parties, Legutko told Euractiv Poland that “he does not know.”

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)