Polish prime minister submits resignation, set to try to form new government

WARSAW

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki submitted his resignation on Monday in Warsaw, during the inaugural session of the Sejm, the country’s lower house of parliament.

Under the Constitution, President Andrzej Duda will now give Morawiecki first shot at forming a new government.

Within 14 days of his appointment, the prime minister must present his government’s program of activities to the Sejm along with a motion for a vote of confidence.

In the Oct. 15 elections, Morawiecki’s party, Law and Justice (PiS), failed to win enough seats in parliament to govern without a smaller coalition partner. The main opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), led by Donald Tusk, is cobbling together a coalition with the Third Way (including PSL) and the Left.

On Nov. 6 Morawiecki offered to step aside for PSL leader Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz to take his place – on condition the PSL supports the continuation of a PiS government.

The PSL has so far rejected any advances from the PiS.

To win a majority, the PiS would have to attract as many as 37 opposition MPs.

If elections were held next Sunday, the PiS would win again, according to a survey by the Pollster Research Institute for Super Express daily.

Meanwhile, 43.4% of respondents believe that the United Right (led by PiS) would fall apart if Jaroslaw Kaczynski no longer headed the PiS, with 25% saying the opposite, according to a SW Research survey for rp.pl.

Kaczynski said on Monday that Tusk was “a man of Germany,” adding that proposals for changes to EU treaties “are not only the removal of sovereignty, but the liquidation of the Polish state.”

• Poland