WARSAW: Poland’s new government led by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has been sworn in and his cabinet is now subject to approval by the lower house of the country’s parliament (Sejm) within the next two weeks.
On Monday afternoon, Morawiecki submitted a proposal to President Andrzej Duda for the formation of a new Council of Ministers, Xinhua news agency reported.
According to a government spokesperson, the cabinet includes experts who have not previously held political positions, as well as politicians with expertise in specific areas.
In the new government, Szyman Szymkowski Wells will take charge of the Foreign Ministry, while Mariusz Blaszczak will remain head of the Ministry of National Defense and Marlena Malag will become Minister of Development and Technology.
Law and Justice (PiS) party leader and former deputy prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is not in the new cabinet. Meanwhile, more than half of the ministers in Morawiecki’s government are women.
Morawiecki now has 14 days to submit an article exposing himself to the Sejm with a request for a vote of confidence.
If he fails to secure this vote, the Sejm will take over the task of selecting the Prime Minister to form a government.
In parliamentary elections held on 15 October, PiS won 194 seats, falling short of a majority in the 460-seat Sejm.
The three main opposition groups, the Civic Coalition led by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Third Way and the New Left, jointly got 248 seats. The opposition alliance signed the coalition agreement on 10 November.
