WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s pro-European opposition parties have reached an agreement to form a government coalition, their prime ministerial candidate Donald Tusk said on Friday, a step that brings them closer to taking power after having won a majority in last October’s elections.
Although the alliance includes parties that have divergent positions on issues ranging from public spending to abortion rights, its leaders say they are united by a desire to improve relations with Brussels and unlock EU funds frozen in due to a dispute over the rule of law.
“We are ready to take responsibility for Poland in the coming years,” Donald Tusk, leader of the Civic Coalition, said at a press conference.
In a document, the coalition parties make a certain number of commitments, in particular on the restoration of transparency of public finances and the depoliticization of public companies.
The agreement also provides for the annulment of a decision by Poland’s Constitutional Court in 2020 that resulted in a near-total ban on abortion in the country.
The right to abortion is a sensitive issue for the alliance which includes both conservative Catholics and left-wing parties.
“Everything cannot be reduced to a single denominator,” said Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, leader of the center-right Polish Peasant Party (PSL), which ran in the election as part of the Third Way coalition.
“In our agreement, we found a common denominator for the themes that we wish to implement. They concern: support for families, employees, entrepreneurs, the Polish countryside, education, health care and women’s rights,” he said.
According to the agreement, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz will be deputy prime minister, as will Krzystof Gawkowski, from the New Left.
The presidency of Parliament will be shared between Szymon Holownia (Third Way) and Wlodzimierz Czarzasty (New Left), who would each hold the position for two years.
The Polish opposition’s announcement of a deal comes shortly after President Andrzej Duda gave the outgoing government of Law and Justice (PiS), the ruling nationalist party, a chance to form a government although it will not no longer has a majority in Parliament.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz, French version by Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)
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