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Poland\u2019s centrist government won a confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday, averting political turmoil for the biggest country on the European Union\u2019s eastern flank and a robust supporter of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Donald Tusk last week called the vote for legislators to endorse his government, hoping to reassert his authority after the victory of a political opponent<\/a>, Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist historian, in a presidential election this month.<\/p>\n In the vote, 243 lawmakers voted in favor of Mr. Tusk and 210 against, giving him a majority in the 460-member lower house of Parliament.<\/p>\n Speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Tusk acknowledged that Mr. Nawrocki\u2019s win in the presidential vote would create challenges \u201cgreater than we expected.\u201d But, referring to the president\u2019s limited and largely ceremonial duties, he insisted that the result of that election \u201cin no way reduces our responsibility, our duties or the scope of our power or competences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In an effort to win the votes of more conservative legislators in his coalition, Mr. Tusk promised to continue limiting immigration, saying that Poland would cut in half the number of visas for would-be migrants from Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n This, he said, was necessary because the previous and notionally anti-immigrant governing party, Law and Justice, had allowed in hundreds of thousands of migrants through corrupt visa schemes that are currently subject to a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n Mr. Tusk\u2019s victory Wednesday in the confidence vote is a blow for the Law and Justice party, which had been hoping for a possible return to power in the event of early elections. A vote against Mr. Tusk\u2019s government would have required him to resign after about only 18 months in office.<\/a><\/p>\n Bruised by Mr. Nawrocki\u2019s victory in the presidential poll and under pressure from Law and Justice to resign, Mr. Tusk last week acknowledged the \u201cgravity of the moment,\u201d but, gambling on a confidence vote, he insisted that \u201cwe do not intend to take a single step back.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Nawrocki, like Andrzej Duda, the departing president, is closely aligned with Law and Justice, and his victory over a liberal candidate backed by Mr. Tusk is likely to harden the stalemate between a presidency and a government pulling in opposite directions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Polish president has no say in setting policy but has veto power over legislation passed by Parliament, a prerogative that has hobbled Mr. Tusk\u2019s government to carry out its agenda. That includes repairing relations with the European Union and reversing changes Law and Justice made during its time in power that compromised the independence of the judiciary and all but banned abortion.<\/p>\n Law and Justice lost its parliamentary majority in a 2023 election, but the coalition of legislators that Mr. Tusk put together to form a government has been a fractious alliance made up of liberals, centrists and conservatives that shared little common ground other than opposition to Law and Justice.<\/p>\n Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n