Civic Platform

Poland's president on Wednesday swore in Donald Tusk as the new pro-EU prime minister, putting an end to eight years of right-wing populist rule.

The ministers of the new administration were successively sworn in by the conservative head of state, who is allied with the previous government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

As he said, this will be the priority of the government, because it is in the interest of the free world.
Tusk said that it is painful for him to hear how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has to continue trying to convince world leaders of the need to continue supporting Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression, AP reported.

After the unexpected success of the opposition march last Sunday in Warsaw, which put a record half a million people on the streets of the capital according to the organisers, democratic political parties seeking to defeat PiS in the general election are feeling emboldened.

Independent website onet.pl used aerial images to calculate that at least 300,000 took to the streets. The centre of Warsaw was completely paralysed and protesters had to walk across the city to get to the meeting place on Sunday at noon.

Polish President Andrzej Duda arrives at the Opening Session of the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe at the Harpa Conference Center in Reykjavik, Iceland, 16 May 2023. EPA-EFE/Leszek Szymanski

Yet even if it wanted to cut a deal with the EU, PiS is caught between a rock and hard place with its junior coalition partner, the party of Zbigniew Ziobro. The hardline justice minister won't agree to any compromises with Brussels, but dropping him from the coalition would result in a minority government, which is definitely not an ideal situation in an election year.

To get the law through, the ruling Law and Justice {PiS} even rejected some amendments proposed by MPs from the party of hardline Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. On Wednesday night, it seemed the Justice Ministers' crowd was ready to let this one go in the name of, as they said, "a far-reaching compromise".

So far, Ziobro has opposed any compromise with Brussels, but the new scenario discussed this week is that his party would submit amendments to a presidential draft law to dismantle the Chamber, which PiS would later accept.

More than 100,000 people demonstrated in Poland today in support of the country's membership in the European Union, Reuters reported.

This came after the Polish Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that parts of European law were incompatible with the national constitution - something that raised fears that Poland might leave the bloc.

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament, sounded the alarm on Thursday (7 October), warning that Poland's ruling party is pushing the country towards 'Polexit'.