Poland’s new prime minister is sworn in, ending 8 years of right-wing domination
New Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Cabinet were sworn in by the president Wednesday morning in a ceremony that marked the end of eight tumultuous years of rule by the conservative nationalist Law and Justice party.
The swearing-in ceremony of Tusk’s pro-European Union government, the final step in a transition of power, took place in the presidential palace in Warsaw.
The change of government follows a national election Oct. 15 that was won by a group of parties vowing to work together under Tusk’s leadership to restore democratic norms eroded by Law and Justice and mend relations with foreign allies that were also strained.
Tusk, a former European Council president, and his ministers arrived at the presidential palace in a bus painted in the white and red colors of Poland’s flag and bearing the words: “We thank you, Poland!” They were greeted by cheering supporters.
Tusk’s government won a vote of confidence in Parliament on Tuesday evening after an inaugural speech in which he vowed to demand that the West keep up its support for Ukraine. The confidence vote was delayed when a far-right lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put out the candles of a menorah during a Hanukkah celebration in the halls of Parliament. Tusk and most other leaders sharply condemned the antisemitic provocation.
In his speech, Tusk called on Poland’s fractious political class to unite, saying it could not afford division while Russia waged a war of aggression across the border in Ukraine, a conflict many fear could spread if Moscow prevails.
Polish Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President Lech Walesa says he is improving after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous administration, swore in the government after having delayed the transition of power as long as he could.
A centrist leader who was prime minister from 2007-2014, Tusk faces challenges that include restoring democratic standards in Poland, working for the release of European Union funding that was frozen because of democratic backsliding by his predecessors, and seeking to manage the in-migration that is causing political upheaval throughout Europe.
The 67-year-old Tusk has vowed to restore foreign ties strained by the Law and Justice-led government, which bickered even with allies such as Germany and Ukraine and was at odds with the EU over legal changes that eroded the independence of the judicial branch.
Tusk’s Cabinet includes a former foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, taking up that role again. Adam Bodnar, a respected human rights lawyer and former ombudsman, was appointed justice minister.
Hundreds of thousands of people have marched in an anti-government protest in Poland’s capital of Warsaw
Tusk named Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, an experienced politician and agrarian party leader, as his defense minister. For Kosiniak-Kamysz, 42, Poland’s security is safeguarded by its membership in NATO and the European Union. In the face of war across Poland’s border, he has vowed to focus on strengthening the defense potential of the armed forces.
The new culture minister is Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, a former interior minister under Tusk in the past who happens to be the great-grandson of “Quo Vadis” author Henryk Sienkiewicz, a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.
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