The Third Cabinet of Donald Tusk is the

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

headed by

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk ( , ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and leader of the Civic Pla ...

who was officially nominated and confirmed as the

Prime Minister of Poland The President of the Council of Ministers ( pl, Prezes Rady Ministrów, lit=Chairman of the Council of Ministers), colloquially referred to as the prime minister (), is the head of the cabinet and the head of government of Poland. The responsibi ...

on 11 December 2023 by the members of the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...

following the failure of Mateusz Morawiecki's Third Cabinet to secure a

vote of confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

. On 12 December, Tusk addressed the parliament and announced members of his cabinet, later that day Tusk's cabinet successfully obtained a vote of confidence with 248 of the 460 MPs voting in the affirmative. He and his cabinet were officially sworn in by president

Andrzej Duda Andrzej Sebastian Duda (; born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the ...

on 13 December 2023. Tusk previously served as Prime Minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014,

President of the European Council The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This institution comprises the college of heads of state or government of EU member states as well as t ...

between 2014 and 2019, and the president of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

(EPP) from 2019 to 2022. The opposition's victory in the

2023 Polish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections will be held in Poland in late 2023 to elect members of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland, Senate, although they can be held sooner if a snap election is called, which last occur ...

and Tusk's return to power in Poland were mostly positively received by the international community, with multiple news outlets pointing to the

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

of certain democratic structures in Poland and the worsening of the country's relationship with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

under the former right-wing government led by

Law and Justice Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...

Background

2023 parliamentary election

Tusk's cabinet was formed following the dissolution Morawiecki's caretaker government originally established as the result of 2023 Polish parliamentary election, which took place on Sunday, 15 October 2023. The United Right won a plurality of seats but fell short of a Sejm majority. The opposition, including the Civic Coalition,

Poland 2050 Szymon Hołownia's Poland 2050 ( pl, Polska 2050 Szymona Hołowni, PL2050) is a centrist political party in Poland. It was founded as a social movement in 2020, shortly after the presidential election. It was officially registered as a politic ...

Polish People's Party The Polish People's Party ( pl, Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL) is an agrarian political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Its history traces back to 1895, when it held the name People's Party, although it ...

, and The Left, secured a Senate majority. Although the United Right would be unable to govern on its own, the Polish president

stated his intention to re-appoint the incumbent

Mateusz Morawiecki Mateusz Jakub Morawiecki (; born 20 June 1968) is a Polish economist, historian and politician who has served as prime minister of Poland since 2017. A member of Law and Justice (PiS), he previously served in the cabinet of prime minister Beata ...

as Prime Minister due to the existing albeit unofficial convention of nominating a member of the winning party. The four opposition parties criticized Duda's decision as a delay tactic. The opposition parties subsequently signed a coalition agreement on 10 November, de facto taking over control of the Sejm, and agreed to nominate former Prime Minister and

European Council President The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This institution comprises the college of heads of state or government of EU member states as well as ...

as their candidate. Morawiecki's new cabinet, dubbed "two-week government" and "zombie government" by the media due to its anticipated short-livedness, was sworn in on 27 November 2023.

Nomination of Donald Tusk

As expected, the Morawiecki government was defeated in the Sejm on 11 December 2023, effectively ending its tenure. Immediately following the vote, the four-party opposition coalition nominated Tusk as prime minister.

Left Together Left Together () is a left-wing political party in Poland. It was formed in 2015 as "Together", and it was one of the eight nationwide committees standing in the 2015 parliamentary election. It was a member of the Progressive International, an ...

, although part of The Left coalition and therefore entitled to cabinet seats, opted not to enter the government due to a number of key issues being left out of the coalition agreement, but has also vowed to support Tusk's government in votes of confidence. The nomination was subsequently confirmed by

absolute majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

vote, with 248 members of the Sejm voting in favor. Also on 11 December, president

accepted Morawiecki's resignation, while designating him as acting Prime Minister of a

caretaker government A caretaker government is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it usually consists of either randomly se ...

until Tusk's swearing-in ceremony, which took place on 13 December 2023.

Confirmation of the cabinet

On 12 December 2023 Tusk addressed the parliament and announced members of his cabinet. Following his two hour speech 254 MPs signed up to ask questions about his upcoming government. Due to an antisemitic incident perpetuated by MP

Grzegorz Braun Grzegorz Michał Braun (born 11 March 1967) is a Polish far-right politician, journalist, academic lecturer, movie director and screenwriter. He is the leader of the Confederation of the Polish Crown and one of the leaders of Confederation Libe ...

in the Sejm Complex, the vote of confidence was delayed by several hours. At 9:53 pm Tusk's cabinet secured the vote of confidence with 248 of the 460 MPs voting in the affirmative. He and his cabinet were officially sworn in by president

on 13 December 2023.

Cabinet

On 12 December, members of the Cabinet presented by Donald Tusk were elected by Sejm. The ministers assumed their offices on 13 December, upon their appointment and swearing-in by the President.

Notations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tusk, Donald, Cabinet of Polish government cabinets History of Poland (1989–present) Civic Coalition (Poland) 2023 establishments in Poland Cabinets established in 2023 Current governments