President Andrzej Duda will nominate a candidate for prime minister who will get the first shot at forming a Polish government in a speech on Monday evening, his head of Cabinet said.
Duda’s decision, made after “consultation and deep consideration,” is “final,” Marcin Mastalerek, the head of Duda’s office, wrote on social media.
Poland’s three largest opposition parties said after the October 15 election that they were ready to build a coalition led by Donald Tusk, a former PM and European Council president, to replace the incumbent Law and Justice (PiS) party and asked Duda to allow them the first opportunity to form a government. Tusk’s Civic Coalition, together with the center-right Third Way and the Left, have 248 seats in the 460-member lower house of parliament.
PiS came in first in the election, winning 194 seats, but is unlikely to be able to find partners to bring it to the needed parliamentary majority of 231.
However, Duda — who is a former PiS member and has been loyal to the party — has said that presidents traditionally give the leader of the largest party a first chance at forming a government.
If Duda’s nominee fails a vote of confidence in parliament, it will be up to the parliament to pick a candidate.
