The leaders of Polish opposition parties signed a coalition agreement on Friday that lays out a roadmap for governing the nation over the next four years — even though they may have to wait weeks to get their chance to take power.
The parties collectively won a majority of votes in last month’s national election, running as separate groups but vowing to work together to restore rule of law after eight years of rule by a populist government that eroded judicial independence.
Their candidate to be the next prime minister is Donald Tusk, a former prime minister who leads the largest of the opposition parties, the centrist and pro-European Union group, Civic Coalition.
Tusk said the parties worked to seal their agreement before the Independence Day holiday on Saturday.
“From today we are ready to take responsibility for our homeland,” Tusk said, saying that the agreement would offer a set of “signposts and recommendations for our work.”
President Andrzej Duda nonetheless gave Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Law and Justice a first chance to try to form a government.
Most commentators say Morawiecki’s mission is doomed, and they believe Duda tapped him to show loyalty to Law and Justice, the party he is allied with.
