Tusk survives confidence vote – resistance from the presidential palace!

Tusk survives confidence vote – resistance from the presidential palace!

On June 11, 2025, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk won the confidence vote in Parliament, gaining the trust of 243 of the 453 MPs present. This vote took place in a tense political context, following the defeat of his pro-European camp in the presidential election on June 1st. In this, the population elected the right-wing nationalist Karol Nawrocki from the opposition PiS as the new president, who narrowly won with 51 percent of the vote against the liberal candidate Rafał Trzaskowski. The vote was crucial for Tusk to secure the support of his heterogeneous center-left coalition formed in 2023. In his speech, the Prime Minister emphasized that he had a mandate to govern and wanted to take responsibility for Poland's future. He also announced that he would reshuffle his cabinet in July and introduce “new faces”.

The outcome of the vote is an important victory for Tusk, especially since Nawrocki's supporters were not present during his speech in the chamber. The coalition partners Tusk apparently ensured that a united approach would be maintained despite the defeat in the presidential election. The coalition currently has 242 of a total of 460 seats in the Sejm, which required a simple majority for the vote of confidence and was therefore achieved. Tusk also wants to create a stable basis for its most important projects, in particular the reversal of the damage to the rule of law caused by the PiS government between 2015 and 2023.

Political challenges and projects

However, the political challenges are significant as Nawrocki, who will take office on August 6, has announced that Tusk will face “strong resistance from the presidential palace”. Nawrocki is a non-party historian who is closely linked to and supported by PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński. In this role, the president in Poland has more power than the federal president in Germany and can block laws with his right to veto.

Tusk will therefore have to prepare for a conflict of direction between his pro-European course and the conservative resistance of the new presidential administration. In his government statement, the Prime Minister reported on foreign policy successes, such as a friendship and cooperation treaty with France and military support for Ukraine. He also highlighted successes in border fortification to combat irregular migration with EU help, with Poland and the EU accusing Belarusian leader Lukashenko of bringing people to the Polish border.

In summary, although Tusk won the confidence vote, he will face significant political challenges and a potentially confrontational relationship with Nawrocki in the coming months. The next period will be crucial for how the political situation in Poland will develop and what measures Tusk can take to achieve his political goals.