Polish parliament’s first session since election heralds new start.

After an election in which a coalition of parties supporting the European Union secured a majority, Poland’s Parliament convened for the first time on Monday, signaling a new era in Polish politics.

President Andrzej Duda has requested Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to establish a new cabinet, but he is unlikely to succeed. Following last month’s election, his nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS) lost its majority, and all other parties have ruled out cooperating with it.

After a tumultuous eight years characterized by spats with the European Union, impromptu late-night votes, and legislation that occasionally moved so quickly that opponents claimed it undermined the regular legislative process, Parliament is about to draw a line.

Donald Tusk, the potential future prime minister, addressed MPs from his Civic Coalition (KO) party, saying, “The nation has done its job, and now its representatives must repair the Republic of Poland… repair democracy.”

On Monday, Morawiecki tendered his resignation from the previous administration. All parties except for PiS voted for Szymon Holownia, a center-right Poland 2050 party member, to be appointed parliamentary speaker, a sign of the difficulties he would have in creating a new government.

Holownia will hold the position until 2025 when Wlodzimierz Czarzasty of the New Left will take over as coalition leader.

Michal Szczerba, a KO legislator, referred to the removal of barriers opposition activists erected outside Parliament to stop demonstrators from leaving during the PiS administration as “symbolic.”
While acknowledging that it is challenging, PiS continues to expect that Morawiecki will be able to assemble a majority.

According to party head Jaroslaw Kaczynski, “it will be a great success if he succeeds,” as he addressed reporters.

Attacking Tusk, whose PiS has decried as a German puppet, Kaczynski declared that the KO leader’s decisions amounted to “not only the removal of sovereignty but the liquidation of the Polish state” without offering further information.

Should Morawiecki lose power, President Duda, a member of the PiS, will have to coexist with Tusk’s administration for a while.

Duda declared that he would not think twice about exercising his veto power. “A possible veto cannot be an excuse for not fulfilling your election promises,” he stated to MPs.

The legislative session on Monday may offer an indication of the difficulties the coalition would have in preserving its unity after the announcement by the New Left that it would present two pieces of legislation to legalize abortion.

The opposition coalition pact did not explicitly state that abortion would be available to anyone during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which upset several left-leaning politicians. Legislators on the center-right rejected such a promise.