Warsaw, 13 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Four weeks after suffering defeat in Polish parliamentary elections, Poland's right-wing nationalist government led by incumbent Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki resigned as expected on Monday.

The step, which came during the first session of the new Polish parliament on Monday, is the first step toward a change in government after eight years of rule by Morawiecki's Law and Justice (PiS) party.

In the election on October 15, an alliance of three opposition parties led by former European Council president Donald Tusk won a clear majority of seats in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament.

Tusk's liberal Civic Coalition (KO), together with the conservative Third Way and The Left parties, hold 248 of the 460 seats.

The three parties, who favour pro-European policies, have already signed a coalition agreement.

Although PiS remained the largest single party in parliament after the election with 194 seats, it fell well short of an absolute majority and has no coalition partner.

The upcoming change of government in Warsaw will also bring a change in Polish foreign policy.

The PiS has been at loggerheads with Brussels over judicial reforms, while relations with neighbouring Germany were at a low point due to the party's demands during the electoral campaign for €1.3 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in new reparations payments for World War II.

The three opposition parties stand for a pro-European course and a more conciliatory policy towards Germany. The 66-year-old Tusk was Poland's prime minister from 2007 to 2014.

On Monday, Szymon Hołownia was elected the new president of parliament. The 47-year-old journalist and TV presenter is one of the two leaders of the Third Way.

Hołownia said parliament will no longer function simply as a "service point for the government" and a "voting machine," a rebuke to previous rule under PiS.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has announced that he intends to officially give Morawiecki and PiS - and not Tusk or another opposition politician - the first chance at forming a coalition government on Monday evening.

Duda, who is himself a PiS member, justified the decision by noting that PiS is the largest single party in parliament. Critics, however, have accused him of cynically trying to give PiS several more weeks in power.

Morawiecki now has 14 days to put his proposed Cabinet to a vote in parliament, where he faces almost certain defeat.

Apart from PiS, not a single other party - not even the ultra-right Confederation - have indicated any interest in supporting him.

But he will need to be voted down in parliament before Tusk's opposition bloc can officially form a government.

The new government will still have to contend with Duda, who has another one and a half years in his term in office and vowed on Monday to continue wielding his veto powers in the future if he feels like the country's interests are at risk.

Photo: MIA Archive