Poland: ProEuropean government survives

Poland’s pro -European government has survived a vote in parliament. A majority of 243 of the 453 MPs present expressed confidence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. 210 voted against it. “Donald Tusk, Donald Tusk,” chanted the government camp’s parliamentarians after the vote.

The 68-year-old Tusk had scheduled the vote of trust after his camp was defeated in the presidential election on June 1st. The liberal candidate Rafal Trzaskowski, a close colleague of Tusks, had narrowly lost the race for the highest state office against the right -wing conservative Karol Nawrocki, which is supported by the opposition PIS. This was also a heavy slump for the head of government. Tusk was fighting in his government declaration: “I know the taste of victory and the bitterness of the defeat, but I don’t know a word: surrender”.

With Nawrocki’s victory, it has become clear that Tusk’s center-left government is hardly moving in its central reform projects, such as the liberalization of the abortion law and the depoliticization of the judiciary. “I ask for a vote of trust because I have the conviction, faith and certainty that we have the mandate to rule and take full responsibility for what is happening in Poland,” said Tusk in his government declaration.

In Poland, the President has significantly more power than the Federal President in Germany. He can block new laws with his veto law. The previous President Andrzej Duda, who comes from the ranks of the PIS, had also slowed down Tusk’s government. Nawrocki has already announced that after taking office on August 6, Tusk could be prepared for “strong resistance from the presidential palace”.

So put pressure on Tusk wanted to close the ranks of his coalition with the vote of trust. The MPs of the largest opposition party PIS were demonstratively not in the plenary hall during the speech.

Tusk emphasized that in the past year and a half of his reign, the border with Belarus, which is also an EU external border, had managed to continue to attach irregular migration. In addition, it was possible to raise the EU’s help for this border fortification. Poland and the EU accuse the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko to target people from crisis regions to the Polish eastern border.

The head of government also referred to the foreign policy success. “Poland has returned to the top class of world politics,” said Tusk. He referred to the friendship and cooperation agreement recently signed with France, which also provides for assistance in defense issues. The relationship with the United States is also in great and “highest level,” said Tusk. Poland is a close military and political ally of the Ukraine attacked by Russia and has an important function as a logistical hub for military aid from the West.

Tusk announced that it would surround his cabinet in July. “There will certainly be new faces.” The information policy of his government should also be improved.

Note: This article has been updated.