Poland’s opposition says it’s ready to take power with Donald Tusk as premier

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) - The leaders of Poland’s opposition alliance that won a majority in elections on Oct. 15 said on Tuesday they are ready to take power, with Donald Tusk as prime minister.

The three opposition groups – the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), center-right Third Way (Trzecia Droga) and The Left (Lewica) – won a majority of 248 seats in the 460-seat Sejm, lower house of parliament. The ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party won 194 seats, ahead of KO which came in second with 157 seats.

“We confirm our preparedness to cooperate fully and create a new majority in the next parliament,” Tusk, a former European Council president, said, adding he would be the coalition’s candidate for prime minister.

Tusk also called on President Andrzej Duda not to delay the process. Duda began talks on Tuesday with parliamentary party leaders on the future government.

Tusk will visit Brussels this week for talks on unblocking €36 billion ($38 billion) from the EU’s post-pandemic recovery funds blocked due to alleged democratic backsliding under the PiS-led government since 2015.

At a press conference in Warsaw on Tuesday, government spokesman Piotr Muller said that if the president designates a candidate for prime minister from the PiS camp, "they will attempt to create a majority government."

Earlier, Mariusz Blaszczak, Poland’s defense minister, told public Radio One that PiS - as the largest party in the parliamentary elections - should continue to govern.

“I think that the democratic custom that exists in Poland will be maintained, in which the winning political party undertakes the mission of creating a government. PiS won the elections, clearly. So, I think the president will make such a decision,” Blaszczak said.

Some PiS MPs have floated the idea of holding talks with the Polish People’s Party (PSL), an agrarian group that is part of the Third Way, but a coalition appears unlikely to happen.