Donald Tusk becomes Poland's prime minister with the mission of improving European Union ties

I hate to be the one to make a useless comment, but that name...

Can't not think of a fusion of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

For a more involved explanation from a Pole:

On th 15th of October, the ruling "United Right" coalition (or Law and Justice and satellites) lost the parliamentary election, getting 194 seats (231 necessary for majority in lower house). It became the most important election in modern Polish history, with 74.38% of registered voters voting, beating the 1989 elections that ended Communist rule in the country. After that, the slow process of transition to a new government began.

The President (Law and Justice) chose the date for the start of a new Parliament, and, in a controversial move, ignored the three committees that announced their intention to form a majority coalition government (with 248 seats total), instead giving the task of forming the government to Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister for the past two Parliaments (also Law and Justice).

For the past two weeks Morawiecki had to face the task everyone acknowledged was impossible: forming a majority in a Parliament where every party was against them, and they had no majority. Many see this appointment as an attempt, by his own party, to kill Morawiecki's political career, as after the inevitable failure to form a new cabinet, he would be forced to shoulder the blame for the party's failure.

As an aside, it's worth mentioning, that Law and Justice is not in its best shape right now. The party's de facto leader, Jarosław Kaczyński is considered to be in progressively deteriorating health. There are few that could possibly take the reins of the party after his departure from politics (be it due to retirement or death). The most likely are Zbigniew Ziobro, a christofascist, homophobic psycho, largely responsible for the dismantling of the independent judiciary, and Morawiecki himself. Morawiecki has little ideological zeal, he is, for all intents and purposes, a bland professional, a former banker and, ironically, Donald Tusk's economic advisor, back before 2014.

In the background, the outgoing government tried it's hardest to entrench itself in any position of power it could, giving positions to, as we say it, the "mediocre, passive but loyal", any cousins that managed to get by without stealing anything so far, hardliners and so on. Their hope is, that the new government wouldn't be able to completely clean house from the dregs of nepotism and corruption, and that they could latch on until (hopefully for them) next election.

Of main interest were positions related to state media, strategic enterprises and any positions that could sabotage any and all efforts of the incumbents.

So the party does not like Morawiecki. Some expected him, to take the last lifeboat on a sinking ship, and announce before his exposé (an address before the lower house, where the Prime Minister tries to convince it to give the new cabinet a vote of confidence), that he couldn't form a cabinet, thus saving himself from the disgrace.

That did not happen.

Yesterday Poles all over the country, before TV sets, online, in cinemas (sic!) and over 400k live on YouTube (beating, or nearly beating the national record for the biggest live audience) were treated to the newest episode of our latest favourite Sitcom "Pierwsze posiedzenie Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" (1st session of the Sejm (pronounced "same") of the Republic of Poland) from 10 o'clock to just past 19 (7PM for computationally challenged), as Mateusz Morawiecki tried to convince a room full of haters that his cabinet will be great.

I could go on and on about all the insane shit that happened, all the hypocrisy of Law and Justice, but we all know where this ends up.

On the 11th of December, 2023, at around 16:20 (4:20PM) CEST, the Sejm, voting 190 for to 266 against, with 4 absent, decided AGAINST granting the 3rd Morawiecki cabinet the vote of confidence.

For the first time in modern history, the presidential pick for Prime Minister failed the vote of confidence.

Great! So what do we do now?

Now begun "the second constitutional step", where the Sejm itself picked the Prime Minister from amongst their own.

The Marshall of the Sejm (Speaker) decreed, that the Convention of Seniors (marshall, deputy marshalls and representatives of all parties) will meet with him to decide upon a candidate.

An hour later, Donald Tusk was announced as the new Prime Minister.

The motion for his appointment was signed by 248 MPs, representing all members of the "democratic opposition" - Left to Centre-right parties in opposition to Law and Justice (no far-right, though they voted against Morawiecki).

Today the new Prime Minister had his exposé, and the new cabinet was formed. Poland enters a new era.

My comment might have been overly long and dramatic, but for majority of Poles this is an extremely important event, representing an end to 8 long years of indignity, corruption, nepotism, dismantling of democracy, trampling of our liberties and so, so much more evil.

So yeah. Hope I didn't bore you to death.

And if you're Polish yourself, and have voted in the elections:

Dziękuję.

Good to see other countries are voting a little more sane than my country. I'm ashamed of our last election result.

The Netherlands, that is.

That name's a rollercoaster

Whoa, someone whose first name is Donald with a last name that rhymes with Musk trying to do something good for a change. I need to sit down.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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The change of power is felt as hugely consequential for the 38 million citizens of the Central European nation, where collective anger against the Law and Justice party produced a record-high turnout to replace a government many believed was eroding democratic norms.

Tusk’s leadership of the EU’s fifth-largest member by population will boost centrist, pro-EU forces at a time when euroskeptics, such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, are gaining strength.

Voters who opted for change, including many young Poles, were eager for the transition to finally arrive, and the parliamentary proceedings have ignited widespread interest, leading to a spike in the number of people watching the parliament’s livestream online.

Szymon Holownia, a former reality television personality who leads a party allied with Tusk, became the speaker of parliament last month and has attracted interest as he has tried to encourage discipline in the sometimes raucous assembly.

The day marked a bitter turn for Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the conservative ruling party leader who has guided Poland for the past eight years but now, at 74, is seeing the huge power he wielded slip away.

Poland’s outgoing government was initially one of Kyiv’s strongest allies after Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, but ties have worsened as economic competition from Ukrainian food producers and truckers has angered Poles who say their livelihoods are threatened.

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The original article contains 1,023 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Wasn't he [Donald Tusk] on Woody Woodpecker Show?

What about people who don’t wear ties? And why do Poles think their ties are superior?