Tusk forced to wait as current PM gets first chance to form Poland coalition

Donald Tusk, who declared victory in last month's Polish parliamentary election, will have to wait several weeks before having a chance to form a government, after the president, Andrzej Duda, said yesterday he would offer the first chance to do so to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

- Shaun Walker

PiS, the nationalist, populist party that has governed Poland for the past eight years, won the most votes of any party but fell far short of a majority of seats in parliament. All other parties have ruled out entering a coalition with PiS, leaving it without any obvious path to retain power.

A broad coalition of opposition forces, the biggest of which is led by Tusk, the former prime minister and European Council president, have said they are ready and willing to form a government.

Constitutionally, however, the president chooses who gets the first shot at forming a coalition. Duda, who has long been aligned with PiS, has taken his time to make a decision, which has been seen by many as a time-wasting tactic.

Yesterday evening, in a televised address, Duda said he had held consultations with PiS and Tusk's Civic Coalition, and both had claimed to be confident of forming a government.

"Both - the representatives of Law and Justice, which obtained the best result in the elections, and the Civic Coalition, which took second place presented their candidates for prime minister and expressed their will to form a government," said Duda.