Polish President Appoints Morawiecki as Prime Minister and Forms New Cabinet

Polish President Andrzej Duda has appointed Mateusz Morawiecki as the Prime Minister and administered the oath to the new Council of Ministers, as reported by the Polish portal PAP.

"We are following the political, historical, and constitutional tradition by appointing the government of the Republic of Poland after parliamentary elections, with a candidate presented by the party or political camp that won in the parliamentary elections," stated the President of Poland.

Duda expressed approval that a significant portion of positions in the new government will be held by women, considering it a breakthrough. He noted that the number of female government officials is a record in the history of the Republic of Poland since 1989.

Several positions, compared to Morawiecki's previous government, have been retained. Mariusz Błaszczak remains at the helm of the Ministry of National Defence. Marlena Maląg is now the head of the Ministry of Development and Technology. The Ministry of Family and Social Policy will be led by social activist Dorota Bożemska, who has been heading the Family Council at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy since 2019.

Isabela Antos, who has been working in the Prime Minister's Office since 2018, is appointed as the Chief of the Prime Minister's Chancellery. Jacek Ozdoba, formerly the State Secretary in the Ministry of Climate and Environment, becomes a Minister-Member of the Council of Ministers.

The leader of the "Law and Justice" party, Jarosław Kaczyński, stated that the new government will be more expert-oriented and less political, emphasizing that it was his idea.

The newly appointed Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, now has two weeks to obtain a vote of confidence for the new government in the Sejm.

On November 13, on the first day of the new Sejm term, the president accepted the resignation of the Council of Ministers and then appointed Mateusz Morawiecki as the Prime Minister.

According to the Constitution, if the government is not elected in the first stage, the Sejm takes the initiative in forming the government. The candidate for Prime Minister can be proposed by a group of at least 46 Members of Parliament. The Sejm elects the Prime Minister by an absolute majority of votes with the presence of at least half of the legislative number of deputies.

In the Sejm elections held on October 15, PiS obtained 194 seats, falling short of a majority with at least 231 deputies. KO received 157 seats, Trzecia Droga - 65, New Left - 26, and Konfederacja - 18.

On November 10, all opposition parties signed a coalition agreement and nominated Donald Tusk as the sole candidate for the position of Prime Minister.