Polish president and prime minister clash at Cabinet Council meeting

Poland's new opposition-aligned president, Karol Nawrocki, has clashed with Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a meeting with the government in the presidential palace.

Nawrocki criticized the Tusk administration for overseeing a record budget deficit and accused it of delaying the construction of a planned new “mega airport” in central Poland.

Tusk, meanwhile, announced that his administration would seek to circumvent last week's veto by Nawrocki of a bill that would have made it easier to install onshore wind farms. The government “has found ways” to build them anyway, even without the vetoed law, said the prime minister.

Under Poland's constitution, the president is empowered to convene a so-called Cabinet Council at which he meets with the government to discuss issues of importance to the state.

However, the power is rarely used: the previous president, Andrzej Duda, who left office at the start of this month, only called two Cabinet Council meetings during his ten years in office.

Last week, the head of Nawrocki's chancellery, Zbigniew Bogucki, announced that the president had called his first such meeting for the morning of 27 August, with the aim of discussing public finances and major infrastructure investments.

During the part of the meeting open to the media, Nawrocki, who was seated alongside Tusk, expressed concern over the record budget deficit .

“When one reads that we have a 150 billion zloty (€35.1 billion) deficit, for me it's a clear alarm signal that something is wrong,” said Nawrocki, quoted by financial news service Money.pl

However, he also expressed opposition to tax increases proposed by the government, saying that instead it should focus on improving tax collection, reports news website Wirtualna Polska.

In response, Tusk defended his government's record, saying that it had “inherited an economy close to stagnation” in December 2023 but, in less than two years, has overseen one of the highest economic growth rates in Europe, falling inflation and record low unemployment .

The president also accused Tusk's administration of delaying implementation of the Central Communication Port (CPK), a flagship airport and transport hub project of the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, with which Nawrocki is aligned.

Nawrocki expressed hope that the government's parliamentary majority would move quickly to adopt the bill he submitted earlier this month intended to ensure that CPK is completed.

The prime minister countered by noting that his government was moving ahead with CPK and pointing to the fact that infrastructure spending has doubled since it replaced the PiS administration.

Tusk, meanwhile, accused the former PiS government of failing to prevent mass grain imports from Ukraine – something Polish farmers have protested against – and the sale of agricultural land to foreign owners . He said that his administration had brought both issues under control.

Nawrocki, however, suggested that the government has not done enough to oppose the proposed trade agreement between the EU and the South American Mercosur bloc, which Polish farmers also say will harm their interests .

Although it was not one of the issues on the president's agenda, Tusk also addressed Nawrocki's decision last week to veto a bill that would have loosened rules on building onshore wind turbines.

“Wind turbines will be built and we will find ways to intensify our activities here by means of a regulation, so a veto here may not be very effective,” said the prime minister.

The government has the power to issue regulations, which, unlike laws, do not need presidential approval. But Tusk did not clarify exactly what he intended to do.

“ We will continue to increase the capacity of onshore wind turbines, and dramatically so,” he declared. “Not because we are fans of wind turbines, but because it is currently the cheapest and fastest source of electricity to implement.”

At that point, Nawrocki interrupted Tusk, saying that “ I think we're getting off topic. We could talk about turbines, but that's not why I invited you.”

Both the president and prime minister did, however, claim to be willing to work together. Nawrocki said that he wanted to “build a kind of road map for solutions to issues that are important to us.”

“We need to eliminate the impression of chaos in the cooperation between the president and the Polish government,” he added.

Tusk, meanwhile, said that he would “very diligently guard the constitutional framework of cooperation between the government and president.”

However, in reality, Nawrocki – who has already issued four vetoes against government bills during his first month in office – and the government are likely to continue to clash on a wide range of issues.

Main image credit: Mikołaj Bujak/KPRP