‘Political cabaret’ takes control of Poland with a two-week government and criticism of opposition leader Tusk

In the midst of the Polish election madness, one thing has been forgotten: the Investigative Committee, composed of candidates nominated by the Law and Justice Party, which is investigating Russian influences on Polish politics. It was created by the previous government. Researchers then focused their attention on opposition leader Donald Tusk, among others. Tens of thousands of Poles, who saw this as an excuse to appease the politician, took to the streets in protest at the time.

The committee returned on Wednesday evening with an interim report. One recommendation: Donald Tusk should not hold a position related to state security. In Poland, this action is seen as the latest measure taken by the previous government to torpedo Tusk’s premiership. This was the committee’s first and last post: The majority in the House of Commons removed all members from office on Wednesday evening.

In recent days, Poles have mainly expressed their astonishment at the interim government of Prime Minister Morawiecki, who was sworn in on Monday. Life expectancy is two weeks. The Polish House of Commons will then examine the proposed government, which does not have the necessary majority for the necessary vote of confidence.

Poles fell over each other with flowery descriptions. Opposition politicians described it as a “farce,” according to a daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita Comparison was made with the TV show Monthly Flying Python Circus. Former Prime Minister Leszek Miller wrote on X that the new Polish government has a shorter lifespan Then a house fly. For the sake of completeness, he made a calculation: a fly lives for 28 days, and the Morawiecki government is expected to live for two weeks.

The beginning of this “political cabaret” (again the opinion pages of Rzeczpospolita) can be traced back to Polish President Andrzej Duda. After the elections, he must give the party, usually the largest, a mandate to form the government. PiS is now the largest party on October 15, but without a majority in the House of Commons. This is in contrast to former Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his coalition of three opposition parties, which represented 248 of the 460 seats.

Tusk and his followers are impatient: they have a coalition agreement and a step-by-step plan, but they have to wait. Morawiecki said on Wednesday that he would present his government’s plan to the House of Commons at the last possible moment: December 11. If parliamentarians vote for his exit, they could then nominate Tusk as a candidate for prime minister, after which Duda would appoint him. It is still unclear whether the research report will shed light on the business. Duda had not responded yet on Wednesday evening.

Building program

Meanwhile, Morawiecki is trying to present his “Cabinet of Political Experts” as moderately as possible. They are often unknown in Polish politics. The Prime Minister said that his party would work on a constructive program that would benefit all Poles. He also proudly announced that more than half of the Cabinet is made up of women. This is noteworthy, because in the past eight years female ministers have been very much in the minority in PiS governments. At the end of 2020, there were more men named Michel in government (four) than women (one).

This is the softer side of PiS, as was evident on Wednesday evening. The opposition also fears that PiS will use the remaining time to appoint loyal officials to positions in state institutions, thus making life difficult for the next government. Or to hide evidence of wrongdoing by previous governments – after the election, reports emerged of, among other things, the Secret Service purchasing 55 additional paper shredders (which it later denied destroying documents).

Reactions from Polish politics this week suggested that Morawiecki had no chance of success and that the fly born on Monday would actually survive his government. Incidentally, Moravitzky is not an example of hope either. The former banker estimated the chance of convincing the House of Commons of his government at “ten percent”. Another PiS member was noticeably more optimistic on Monday. ‘It’s fifty-fifty. It either works or it doesn’t.