Poland’s incumbent prime minister on Monday lost a vote of confidence making way for Donald Tusk’s coalition of pro-European Union parties to take power.
The vote marked the conclusion of an eight-year-tenure of nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which as per the critics vandalised judicial independence, turned state-owned media into a propaganda outlet and instigated prejudice against minorities such as immigrants and the LGBT community.
Out of the 456 members of parliament who cast their votes, 266 voted no confidence in Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
He had the backing of 190 lawmakers.
“We are saying goodbye to PiS … history is being made,” Monika Rosa, a lawmaker from Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) grouping wrote on social media platform X.
PiS, during its tenure, had claimed to safeguard Poland’s sovereignty and traditions from foreign interference, while also improving the living standards for millions of Poles by introducing social benefits and raising the minimum wage.
Morawiecki, presenting his general programme in the parliament on Monday, said that he was sure that the “project” PiS had for Poland “must win and will win”.
“We introduced a new socio-economic model – the first steps in creating a country of solidarity,” Morawiecki said.
He also underlined how he projects the ties with the European Union should look like.
“Maybe not yet today, not in this chamber,” Morawiecki conceded, referring to a confidence vote scheduled for the afternoon that he is set to lose.
President Andrzej Duda, who is an ally of the outgoing government, provided PiS with the first attempt at forming a government, but the fact that it lacked a majority and all the other parties had ruled out working with it made this impossible.
“December 11 in the parliament… will be an epochal moment in the history of Poland,” the lower chamber’s speaker Szymon Holownia of the liberal Third Way party had earlier said on Monday.
Three pro-EU opposition parties were successful in grabbing a majority in a parliamentary vote held on Oct 15 which included pledges like fixing strained diplomatic ties with the European Union and bringing about liberal reforms.
Poles head to cinema, watch PiS rule end
Hundreds of residents headed to the cinema hall in central Warsaw to watch Monday’s session on the big screen.
“For me it was a stupid joke to watch the change of power in the cinema… (but) it was picked up on by a Warsaw cinema for which I am very grateful,” Michal Marszal, an Instagrammer who came up with the idea for the screening was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters. “I have to pinch myself because I still can’t believe it happened.”
“After it turned out that many young people went to vote… (parliament) became perhaps not so much fashionable, but important and interesting for many people,” said Dominik Kazus, 30, an artist who travelled from Konin in central Poland for the screening.
(With inputs from agencies)
