WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president said Thursday that he is calling the first session of the country's newly elected parliament for Nov. 13.
President Andrzej Duda's announcement launches a timetable that will lead to the formation of a new government after Poland's national election on Oct. 15. He must also announce a candidate for prime minister but said that decision would come later.
Duda said there were two serious candidates for the post, the current prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, and Donald Tusk, a former prime minister who is the head of an opposition bloc that collectively won a majority of seats in the new parliament - 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house, or Sejm.
Morawiecki belongs to the ruling conservative Law and Justice party. It won more votes than any other single party in the election but lost its majority in parliament. The party secured 194 seats and has no potential coalition government partner. Still, Law and Justice has said it considers itself the winner and is asking to be given the first chance to try to form a government.
“Today we have two serious candidates for the post of prime minister, we have two political groups that claim to have a parliamentary majority and that have their candidate for prime minister,” Duda said. "This is a new situation, one might say, in our democratic standards.
“As you can understand, I have to give this consideration,” he said calling it a “serious” issue.
Duda led consultations earlier this week with the heads of all the parties that won seats in parliament.
He noted that the constitutional term of the outgoing parliament runs til Nov. 12 and that he sees no reason to shorten it.
The decision means there will not be a new government in place for some time, and possibly not until December if the president first taps Morawiecki. In such a case, Morawiecki would have 14 days to present a Cabinet to parliament for confirmation.
If his proposed government fails to win parliament's backing, which appears to be an inevitable outcome, it would then fall to parliament to present its candidate. In that case the parliamentary majority would choose Tusk.
