WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s president will meet parliamentary party leaders next week, his office said, as the nation waits to see whom he will task with forming a government after the ruling nationalists lost their majority in a general election.
Pro-European Union opposition parties won a majority in Sunday’s ballot, a huge shift for Poland after eight years of feuding with Brussels over issues ranging from judicial independence to LGBT rights. It also represents a setback for rightwing populism in the EU.
“Next Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct. 24-25), at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, consultations with representatives of individual electoral committees… will be held at the Presidential Palace,” the president’s office said on social media platform X.
“The meetings will be held separately with each of the election committees, in the order in accordance with the results achieved by these committees in the elections.”
Duda said before the vote that he would give the first shot at forming a cabinet to the group or party that won most ballots.
The ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party came first in the election but is unlikely to secure a third term in government for want of a coalition ally.
The leaders of the three parties that are seeking to form a coalition have called on Duda not to delay making a decision.
“Representatives of the president’s office said that the president has time, but Poland does not have time and this majority expects these decisions to be made quickly,” said Michal Kobosko, deputy leader of Poland 2050, part of the centre-right Third Way.
However, Duda’s aides have said the president is in no hurry to make a decision.
“The president knows his responsibilities and will not give in to pressure,” aide Malgorzata Paprocka told Rzeczpospolita daily.
“A government will be formed within the timeframe laid out in the constitution, with respect for the will of citizens.”
This means the process of forming a new government in Poland, the largest country in the EU’s eastern wing, could take weeks or even months.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Gareth Jones)
