WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will get the first shot at forming a government after his nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party won last month’s election, the president said on Monday – a seemingly impossible task as it lacks a majority.
An alliance of pro-European Union opposition parties won a majority in the Oct. 15 ballot, but President Andrzej Duda had said before the election he would give the largest single party the first chance to form a government.
The nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, in power since 2015, led in the election but lost its majority. With all other parties having ruled out forming a coalition with PiS, the party looks unlikely to be able to govern.
“After a calm analysis and consultations, I decided to entrust the mission of forming a government to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki,” Duda, a PiS ally, said in a televised address.
If Morawiecki is unable to win a vote of confidence in parliament, the chamber would then appoint another prime minister.
This would likely be former European Council President Donald Tusk, the mainstream opposition parties’ choice for prime minister.
His appointment would mark a huge shift for Poland after eight years of feuding with Brussels over issues ranging from judicial independence to LGBT rights.
Tusk, a former president of the European Council, has vowed to unblock funds earmarked for Poland that have been frozen by Brussels due to a dispute over judicial reforms that critics say increase political influence over the courts.
He has also said he wants to put those accused by his alliance of wrongdoing during PiS’s eight years in power, including Duda himself, before a state tribunal.
The liberal Civic Coalition (KO) grouping accuses PiS of subverting democratic standards by increasing political control over the courts and turning state television into an outlet for propaganda. The government denies the accusations.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, Additional reporting by Anna Koper; editing by Gareth Jones, Philippa Fletcher and Sharon Singleton)
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