The Polish government survived a vote of confidence in parliament, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk sought to reassert his authority after the defeat of a key ally in the recent presidential election.
Lawmakers voted 243-210 in favor of the government in the 460-seat Sejm, the lower house. There were no abstentions.
The ruling coalition has 242 MPs, but it received one lawmaker’s additional support during the no-confidence vote in parliament.
Lawmakers from PiS, the far-right Confederation, and the far-left Razem party all voted against the government.
Tusk requested the vote, saying Poland is in a new reality and that he was seeking a fresh opening, following the June 1 loss of Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski — his close ally — to nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki.
Nawrocki is set to replace Andrzej Duda, another conservative who repeatedly blocked Tusk’s reform efforts.
Ahead of the confidence vote, Tusk addressed the parliament. As part of his fresh start, he announced plans for a government reconstruction in July that will include “new faces.”
He said that a government spokesperson would be appointed in June — an acknowledgement that the four-party coalition needs someone who can present a unified message on behalf of all the coalition partners.
So far Tusk has sought to communicate government policies to the public himself on social media and in news conferences.
Rocky Road Ahead For Tusk
Despite surviving the vote, the Polish Prime Minister now faces two and a half years of being hobbled by the new veto-wielding opposition President, Karol Nawrocki.
Tusk had long counted on a Trzaskowski victory to break the institutional deadlock created by Duda’s vetoes. Instead, he now faces an incoming President aligned with the nationalist opposition and openly hostile to his government’s legislative priorities.
While most of the power in Poland’s political system rests with an elected parliament, and a government chosen by the parliament, the president can veto legislation.
This will likely see Nawrocki block reform efforts planned by Tusk, such as the planned introduction of same-sex partnerships or easing a near-total ban on abortion.
There are therefore questions about what Tusk can realistically achieve before the next parliamentary election, scheduled for late 2027, and whether the coalition will survive that long amid a surge in popularity for the far right.
Additionally, Analysts say many Polish voters are disillusioned with the government’s failure to deliver on key promises, including reforming the judiciary and raising the threshold at which Poles start paying taxes.
Tusk’s authority has also been badly damaged with murmurs that the time has come for him to hand over leadership of the alliance, something he has refused to do. “I know the taste of victory, I know the bitterness of defeat, but I don’t know the word surrender,” he said in his address before the confidence vote.
Tusk served as Polish Prime Minister from 2007 to 2014 and then as president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019.
He became Poland’s Prime Minister again in December 2023 in a country hit by the pandemic and inflation and facing significant political divisions.
In a sign of those divisions, half of the parliament hall was empty on Wednesday morning when Tusk gave his address, with many lawmakers from the right-wing Law and Justice party boycotting his speech. Tusk said that their absence showed disrespect to the nation.
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