Morawiecki confirms breakaway Polish opposition group will form new party

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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.

Mateusz Morawiecki has confirmed that the group he leads, Development Plus (Rozwój Plus), which is in the process of splitting from the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, will soon form a party of its own.

He laid out a vision of a more moderate, centre-right party that would focus on economic development rather than “ideological disputes” over abortion or same-sex marriage. However, Morawiecki made clear he retains a hardline position on migration, saying he wants “zero Muslim migrants”, even legal ones, in Europe.

He also categorically ruled out ever working with current Prime Minister Donald Tusk, but left the door open to potentially cooperating with the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), which is part of Tusk’s current ruling coalition, and with the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), an opposition group.

Development Plus was founded as an association by Morawiecki, a former PiS prime minister and current deputy leader of the party, in April this year. That immediately prompted criticism from some other members of the party, who saw it as a step towards creating a breakaway group.

Matters came to a head last month, when PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński demanded that all the party’s lawmakers sign a pledge of loyalty and commit to leave any political associations they are part of. Morawiecki and his allies refused to do so, prompting Kaczyński to declare that meant they had effectively resigned from the party.

Last week, Development Plus announced it had formed its own separate parliamentary caucus with 40 MPs in the Sejm, the most powerful lower house of parliament. The move immediately made it the third-largest group in the parliament, while also meaning PiS was no longer the biggest.

Most MPs in Development Plus, including Morawiecki himself, are still technically members of PiS, a situation that will only change if they decide to quit the party or if they are thrown out following a disciplinary process that could take weeks to complete.

However, on Monday, in a lengthy interview with journalist Bogdan Rymanowski, Morawiecki confirmed that he would establish a new, separate party. That will happen “at the latest on 15 October”, when Development Plus is planning to hold a major convention, he added.

Morawiecki claimed that a small group of hardliners, associated in particular with the nationalist Sovereign Poland (Suwerenna Polska) party that was absorbed into PiS in 2024, were “devouring” PiS from the inside, pushing it in a more “radical” direction and seeking to take control of the party and its finances.

The former prime minister argued that it had been a “colossal mistake” by PiS to try to compete with two rising far-right groups, Confederation and Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP), while abandoning the centre ground.

He noted that this had coincided with the party’s support in polls falling to below 25%, its lowest level in 14 years and well below the 35% that the party won at the 2023 parliamentary elections, when Morawiecki was prime minister.

Morawiecki also traced PiS’s problems back even further, pointing to the decision in 2020 to push for a near-total abortion ban. He claimed that he had, at the time, “warned [Kaczyński] repeatedly…that it would lead to disaster”. Subsequently, PiS fell from support of over 40% in polls to around 30% within a year.

Morawiecki told Rymanowski that he and many of his colleagues in Development Plus support a return to the pre-2020 abortion law.

“Poland doesn’t need the fervour of ideological disputes” over issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, especially during a time of “crises, wars and disruptions”, said Morawiecki.

“I want us to talk about strengthening the economy, strengthening security, restoring the job market, and how to prevent young people from thinking about leaving Poland again.”

The former prime minister also made clear that his overriding aim is “removing [Tusk] from power and overthrowing the Tuskist system”, which he characterised as a combination of “idleness” and “profound cynicism”, with the lack of any significant reforms disguised by “political marketing”.

Asked if he would seek to achieve this by forming a coalition with the far-right Confederation, Morawiecki refused to rule it out, saying that “voters will decide” on the strength of various parties. “But I certainly won’t form any coalition with Tusk,” he clarified.

However, Morawiecki suggested he would be willing to work with PSL and its leader, current deputy prime minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, if they left the coalition with Tusk. PSL is the most conservative part of the current government.

While Morawiecki generally laid out a vision of a relatively moderate centre-right party that he wants to create, he also made clear that he retains a hardline position on opposing Muslim immigration.

“I would say zero Muslim immigrants at all. In Poland, absolutely zero…even into Europe,” he declared. Asked by Rymanowski to clarify if he was talking about only illegal migrants, or legal ones as well, Morawiecki said he was also referring to legal Muslim migrants.

“We cannot accept them, because they will destroy our culture,” said Morawiecki. “After what I see Muslims doing in Europe, I don’t want to turn Europe into a Muslim caliphate….The French and Germans…are making a colossal mistake: destroying their own culture, destroying security, and destroying peace.”

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: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.