Polish junior governing party asks members for views on forming new coalition with opposition

The centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), a junior partner in Poland’s ruling coalition, has canvassed its members on whether they would support forming an alternative governing coalition with the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), two opposition parties.

While news of the move has caused concern among some of PSL’s allies, the party insists that it regularly asks its members such questions and says that 70% of them support remaining in the current ruling coalition with centrist and left-wing parties.

News of PSL’s survey comes amid the continued fallout of this month’s presidential election, in which PiS-backed candidate Karol Nawrocki defeated government-aligned Rafał Trzaskowski in a run-off vote on 1 June.

That has raised questions over the effectiveness – and even viability – of the ruling coalition. It prompted Prime Minister Donald Tusk to call a vote of confidence in his government, which will take place this week. PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, meanwhile, called on the government to step down entirely.

On Saturday, Polsat News reported that it had established that PSL members around Poland had received a survey in which they were asked about the idea of PSL, PiS and Confederation forming a government with PSL leader Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz as prime minister.

In response to Polsat’s report, PSL spokesman Miłosz Motyka said that the party has sent out “a survey with various questions”. He noted that “we have been conducting such surveys for years, systematically, every few months”.

Motyka added that only a “marginal” number of PSL members favour cooperation with PiS while “the vast majority have a negative attitude towards PiS”. Moreover, “over 70% are in favour of maintaining the current coalition”.

PSL is the most conservative element of the government, which is dominated by Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO) and also includes The Left (Lewica) and the centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050). The latter party stood at the 2023 parliamentary elections in an alliance with PSL though they maintain separate identities.

Given that the ruling coalition has 242 MPs in the 460-seat Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, it would lose its governing majority if any of its member parties quit. The PSL caucus, for example, has 32 members.

Figures from PSL’s partner parties have expressed disappointment at reports of its survey. Adrian Witczak, a KO MP, told Polsat that the move was “a bit unacceptable”. Aleksandra Leo of Poland 2050 told TV Trwam that “we would not think of conducting such a survey”.

Meanwhile, ahead of Wednesday’s planned vote of confidence in the government, so far only Tusk’s KO and The Left have confirmed that they will vote in favour, reports the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper, while PiS, Confederation and the small left-wing Together (Razem) party will oppose it.

PSL is due to make a final decision at a meeting of its parliamentary caucus today, while the leadership of Poland 2050 has not publicly confirmed its support. Should either party vote against the motion, Tusk would be obliged to resign as prime minister. However, that outcome is seen as unlikely.

PiS has nevertheless been pushing for parts of the ruling coalition to join it in bringing down Tusk and replacing his administration with what Kaczyński describes as a “technical administration” made up of “apolitical specialists” that would rule until the next parliamentary elections, which are due in 2027.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl