Polish Prime Minister Tusk's pro-EU government wins confidence vote

Poland's parliament has approved the government of newly elected Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a vote of confidence, a final step in a change of power that will have ripple effects across Europe.

Tusk, a centrist leader who previously served as prime minister of the EU country from 2007 to 2014, was appointed as the new head of government by parliament on Monday, ending eight years of rule by conservative populists who frequently clashed with Brussels.

His three-way coalition government needed to pass a vote of confidence, which it secured on Tuesday night. Of the 449 lawmakers present in the lower house, 248 voted in favour while 201 were against.

President Andrzej Duda is set to complete the political transition in Warsaw by swearing in the Cabinet on Wednesday at 9 am (0800 GMT).

Earlier on Tuesday, Tusk called for the values of democracy and the rule of law to be respected, and said that Poland will once again work productively with the European Union.

"What really forms a community is the rule of law, the constitution, the rules of democracy, secure borders and a secure national territory: These are the things we must not argue about," Tusk said in his government statement.

The previous government of the conservative nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS) had been at loggerheads with Brussels for years over controversial judicial reforms.

The European Commission has initiated several infringement proceedings against the EU member state, and is blocking a multibillion-euro coronavirus aid fund.

Under his government, Poland will achieve the position of a "leader within the EU" through good cooperation, said Tusk. "The stronger the European Community is, the stronger and more sovereign we are."

One reason for the victory of his pro-European tripartite alliance in the parliamentary elections was that many voters in Poland wanted the country to play an important role in the EU, he said. The 66-year-old from Gdańsk was president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019.

Turning to Ukraine, Tusk said he plans to persuade the West to provide more support for Ukraine to help it fight off Russia's invasion.

In the statement to parliament as he presented his Cabinet, Tusk said that he would not listen to Western politicians who talked about the situation in Ukraine making them weary.

"We will loudly and resolutely demand the full mobilization of the free Western world to support Ukraine in this war." He will be travelling later this week to the EU summit in Brussels where, he said, he wants to find "different ways" to convince Poland's traditional allies of the need for help.

Poland has been one of the most important political and military supporters of neighbouring Ukraine since the beginning of the war. However, tensions recently rose between the previous conservative PiS government and Kiev.

In parliamentary elections on October 15, PiS was once again the strongest single party, but fell short of an absolute majority. The Civic Coalition led by Tusk, the Third Way party alliance and the Lewica (Left) alliance together won a clear majority of 248 of the 460 seats in the Sejm, and rapidly concluded a coalition agreement.

However the PiS and President Duda, who also comes from its ranks, delayed the handover of power for as long as was constitutionally possible. Duda tasked the previous prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki with forming a new government, despite universal expectations that he would not be able to do so.

As expected, Morawiecki failed and lost a vote of confidence on Monday, opening the way for Tusk to secure power two months after the election.