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Polish President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki

Photo: Czarek Sokolowski / AP

Poland's President Andrzej Duda has sworn in the new cabinet of former national-conservative Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, even though his PiS party has no governing majority in parliament and no coalition partner.

The formation of a PiS government is seen as a pure political show. In Morawiecki's new cabinet, apart from himself and Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, there are no prominent PiS politicians, but many previously unknown faces. Duda is pleased with the high proportion of women and the many younger members of the cabinet, he said at the ceremony in Warsaw's presidential palace.

In the parliamentary elections on 15 October, three pro-European parties of the previous opposition, led by former EU Council President Donald Tusk, won a clear majority. A coalition agreement has already been signed, and the division of responsibilities has been finalised. Tusk could get started right away.

But even in view of these majorities, President Duda, who himself comes from the ranks of the PiS, had tasked Morawiecki with forming a government. Representatives of the opposition accuse Duda of trying to prevent the political turnaround for weeks.

Media mock "Morawiecki's nativity play"

Morawiecki now has 14 days to ask for a vote of confidence in parliament. However, he does not have a majority there and is likely to fail. Only then will the former opposition be able to form its government. Polish media mock the "two-week government" and "Morawiecki's nativity play".

In Brussels and Berlin, people are waiting hopefully for the change of government in Warsaw. The PiS was in a permanent clinch with the EU Commission over its judicial reform, and the German government annoyed it with its demand for trillions of euros in World War II reparations. Tusk and his comrades-in-arms, on the other hand, stand for a pro-European course and a more conciliatory policy towards Germany. The 66-year-old from Gdansk was Poland's head of government from 2007 to 2014.

czl/dpa