Polish PM Tusk wins confidence vote amid criticism

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has survived a vote of confidence in the lower house of the country's parliament, called at his request following the victory of a right-wing candidate in the country's recent presidential election.

Tusk was backed by 243 members of parliament, with 210 voting against him, and no abstentions.

At the start of the month, Tusk's ally Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, lost out to conservative Karol Nawrocki in the presidential runoff.

Nawrocki, who has the backing of United States President Donald Trump, replaces another member of the right-wing Law and Justice party, Andrzej Duda, as president, with his predecessor having frequently blocked Tusk's proposals for reform.

Before the vote took place, Tusk issued a plea for support, saying: "Anyone who is ready to move forward with me, with the government, and above all with our voters … and build a better Poland, should vote today for a vote of confidence in our government."

Tusk has been openly critical of the new president, saying: "A(former) president who was reluctant to accept the changes we proposed for Poland and our voters is being replaced by a president who is at least equally reluctant to those changes and proposals." He pointed to Trzaskowski's slim margin of defeat as a sign that his reform plans still have significant backing.

Tusk previously served as prime minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014, before a term as president of the European Council. He then returned to domestic political office in December 2023.

The wide political spread of his coalition government is coming under strain, with some within the coalition having blamed him for Trzaskowski's presidential election loss.

However, the seasoned political campaigner remains defiant, saying, "I know the taste of victory, I know the bitterness of defeat, but I don't know the word surrender", and adding that he was glad to have had the endorsement of a successful confidence vote "for obvious reasons" — because he had been facing "a lot of noise and speculation "about both his own future and that of the government.

With the next parliamentary election due in 2027, Tusk said he hoped the vote would kill off speculation about the future of the government, and ahead of a widely anticipated cabinet reshuffle, he would tell his ministers they have "two years to make amends" and regain public support.

In a sign of the challenge Tusk faces — when his confidence vote win was announced, the parliamentary chamber was half empty as Law and Justice members chose to shun his speech, a move he said showed disrespect to the country.