Poland’s three main opposition groups are in advanced talks on a coalition agreement and will be ready to form a government on November 14, a senior liberal politician has said.
Jan GrabiecPAP/Maricn Obara
Jan Grabiec, who is spokesman for Poland’s largest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), made the declaration in a television interview on Tuesday.
He told private broadcaster TVN24: “We will be ready to form a government on November 14.”
Grabiec added that the coalition deal between the three opposition groups–the liberal Civic Coalition (KO), the centre-right Third Way alliance, and the New Left party–would “lay out policy directions, rather than flesh out all the policy details.”
He also said that „the talks are going very well and there are no significant obstacles.”
Grabiec told TVN24 that the new government “must reflect the balance of forces in parliament,” while at the same time “being a partnership,” with all the coalition parties “entrusted with important government ministries.”
“A Cabinet made up of four coalition parties must be functional,” Grabiec said.
Poland set to appoint new gov’t
Last week, President Andrzej Duda held talks on the formation of a new government with the political groups that had won seats in the new parliament.
Afterwards, the head of state said that two groups had claimed to have the backing of a parliamentary majority and a candidate for prime minister, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has named outgoing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as its pick to stay on as head of the new government, while the Civic Coalition, the Third Way and the New Left have jointly named opposition leader Donald Tusk, a former prime minister and European Council president, as their choice.
Duda has announced he will convene the first session of the country’s newly elected parliament on November 13.
Poland elects new parliament
The ruling conservatives won Poland’s October 15 election, but lost their parliamentary majority, increasing the likelihood of an opposition government.
The Law and Justice party, allied with two smaller groupings in a United Right coalition, claimed 35.4 percent of the vote and 194 seats in elections to the lower house of parliament.
Meanwhile, the largest opposition bloc, the Civic Coalition, led by Tusk’s Civic Platform party, won 30.7 percent of the vote and 157 seats.
The centre-right opposition Third Way alliance finished third at the ballot box with 14.4 percent of the vote and 65 seats, and the opposition New Left party finished fourth with 8.6 percent and 26 seats.
The far-right Confederation group, with 7.2 percent of the vote, also crossed the 5-percent voter support threshold that Polish parties need to clear to enter parliament. It secured 18 lower-house seats.
The Civic Coalition, the Third Way and the New Left together hold 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house.
In addition to seizing control of the lower house, the opposition won 66 senatorial seats, while the ruling conservatives secured 34 seats in the upper house of Poland’s bicameral parliament.
Under the Polish constitution, the new parliament must convene for the first time within 30 days of the election.
The president then has 14 days to nominate a candidate for prime minister. Once named, the nominee has 14 days to secure a vote of confidence from lawmakers. If this attempt is unsuccessful, parliament then selects its own nominee for prime minister.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, TVN24.pl