In his long address to Parliament, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a government spokesperson will be appointed in June, with a broader cabinet reshuffle set for July. The forthcoming changes will include a revised structure and, as he put it, “new faces” within his administration.
The hour-long speech touched on key issues, including migration, accountability, and ongoing support for Ukraine. It was delivered in response to a confidence vote motion tabled just one day after Karol Nawrocki’s victory in the second round of the presidential election.
Acknowledging the challenges that lie ahead with a new president in office, Tusk struck a resolute tone.
“I have conviction, belief, and certainty,” he said, insisting that the current coalition holds a legitimate mandate to govern. “Capitulation is not in my vocabulary,” he added.
“There’s no political earthquake,” Tusk remarked at the outset, “but let’s call it what it is: we’re facing two and a half years of hard, serious work, in conditions that are unlikely to improve.”
Addressing concerns surrounding alleged irregularities in the vote count in some electoral commissions, the prime minister assured that, regardless of “emotions and negative headlines,” his coalition would respect the outcome of the election.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called on opposition MPs from the Law and Justice party (PiS) to adopt a constructive stance and form what he described as a „technical opposition” – one that would cooperate with the government on passing legislation beneficial to Poland. He cited deregulation as an example of an area where cross-party collaboration could yield real progress.
Speaking in the Sejm, Tusk claimed that under his leadership, Poland had reclaimed its place at the forefront of European and global politics. He also pointed to what he called the country’s impressive economic performance.
„In just over a year, we’ve taken a state that was dysfunctional – with broken or corrupt institutions – and turned it around,” Tusk declared. „We now boast the fastest economic growth in Europe, one of the lowest unemployment rates on the continent, and some of the highest increases in real wages and investment levels.” This, he stressed, was not a miracle but the result of building „an honest and competent state.
Tusk’s address was notably boycotted by a significant number of PiS MPs, who chose not to attend the prime minister’s policy speech in parliament. Instead, several of them appeared at a press conference held just before the government’s confidence vote was set to be debated.
While members of the ruling coalition criticised their absence as a dereliction of democratic duty, PiS representatives defended the move on social media, claiming they had no intention of listening to what they described as „lies.”
Source: PAP
Photo: @SamPereira_
Tomasz Modrzejewski
