Tusk to call confidence vote as opposition demand “technical government” after presidential election

Jun 2, 2025 | Politics

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Amid the fallout from Sunday’s presidential election, in which opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki won, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced a vote of confidence in his own government to demonstrate whether it still has the support of a parliamentary majority.

Meanwhile, Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, which supported Nawrocki’s candidacy, has called for Tusk’s administration to be replaced by a “technical government” made up of “apolitical specialists”.

Early on Monday morning, official results from the election showed that Nawrocki, with 50.9% of the vote, had narrowly defeated Rafał Trzaskowski, deputy leader of Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform (PO), who took 49.1%.

Given that the president wields the power to veto bills passed by parliament, Nawrocki’s victory is likely to prevent Tusk’s government – a coalition ranging from left to centre-right – from pursuing its agenda over the rest of the current parliamentary term, which is due to run until autumn 2027.

In a televised address on Monday evening, Tusk said he “acknowledges his [Nawrocki’s] victory and congratulates his voters”. But he then claimed that “the presidential election has not changed” anything and that his government would continue its work.

 

Since coming to power in December 2023, Tusk’s coalition has already been stymied by President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, whose final term in office expires this August.

Speaking today, the prime minister said that his administration “will cooperate with the new president wherever necessary and possible”, but admitted that it would be a “surprise” if Nawrocki is willing to work with them.

The prime minister then announced that “the first test will be a vote of confidence” in the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, which would be called “soon”.

“I want everyone to see, including our opponents, at home and abroad, that we are ready for this situation, that we understand the gravity of the moment, but that we do not intend to take a single step back,” declared Tusk.

In Poland, a prime minister can call a vote of confidence at any time. It involves a simple majority vote in the presence of at least half the total number of MPs. If they fail to win a majority, the prime minister is obliged to resign.

In post-1989 Poland, only six such votes of confidence have been called – including two by Tusk himself in 2012 and 2014 during a previous stint as prime minister – and all have been won.

The current ruling coalition has a majority of 242 in the 460-seat Sejm. However, if any of PO’s coalition partners – the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) or The Left (Lewica) – rebels, it would lose that majority.

Speaking earlier today, Szymon Hołownia, the speaker of the Sejm and leader of Poland 2050, said that he thought a vote of confidence was “a bad idea” and even suggested his party could abstain from voting.

“The prime minister can’t put us against the wall and surprise us with such news in such a manner without agreement,” said Hołownia, who was speaking before Tusk’s announcement but when rumours of a confidence vote were already circulating.

However, Bartłomiej Pejo, an MP from the far-right opposition Confederation (Konfederacja) party, called Tusk’s announcement “a PR move” because the prime minister knows he “has an obedient and stable majority in the Sejm”.

Meanwhile, shortly before Tusk’s address, Kaczyński held a press conference at which he called on the government to be replaced by a “technical” administration that would be “non-partisan” with “individual ministries managed by specialists in specific areas”.

Kaczyński said that Sunday’s presidential election had been a “red card” for Tusk’s government, showing that it did not have public support. He claimed that a technical administration would help “calm down the mood” and run the country until the next parliamentary elections in 2027.

He “appealed to all political forces of the country to start talks in this direction”, adding that the idea has the support of President-elect Nawrocki. Earlier in the day, Nawrocki had visited PiS headquarters for talks with Kaczyński and other party leaders.


Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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