Prime Ministers of Poland

Polish pro-EU government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk won a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday, marking an end to eight years of rule by right-wing populists.

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.

Expectations for Poland's pro-EU government which is due to take power next week are sky-high but current ruling nationalists will still be a powerful and influential opposition, analysts say.

 Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki offered his conservative government's resignation on Monday as required as the newly elected parliament met for the first time in a transition of power following an election last month.

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

In other news, Donald Tusk, leader of Poland's main opposition Civic Platform party, is put under investigation by Warsaw prosecutors for abuse of power; the new Czech president is already at odds with the government; and former Slovak PM Robert Fico says 'yes' to Ukraine in the EU, 'no' to it joining NATO.

Poland's government said Saturday that it has decided to temporarily prohibit grain and other food imports from Ukraine as it seeks to soothe the rising anger of Polish farmers, who say they are losing huge amounts of money to a glut of Ukrainian grain on the market.

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.

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.