Ewa Kopacz faces 'difficult task' as new Polish PM

President Komorowski officially appointed Ewa Kopacz, Monday, as Poland's new prime minister designate, after Donald Tusk's election to lead the EU's European Council earlier this month.

Bronislaw Komorowski wished the 57 year-old Kopacz “patience and perseverance” after a one-hour meeting on Monday.

“This is a difficult task at a difficult time,” President Komorowski said, confirming that a new coalition cabinet will be appointed on 22 September.

Ewa Kopacz, a former health minister in the centre-right Civic Platform-led coalition, in power since 2007 and re-elected in 2011, will lead the party into the next general election campaign, scheduled for autumn next year.

“There has been much speculation about how the next government will perform: but I can say one thing – it will be a good government,” Kopacz said after her meeting with President Komorowski at the Belweder Palace in Warsaw.

Kopacz faces a difficult task in getting her Civic Platform re-elected in 2015 as it currently trails in opinion polls to the conservative opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), led by former PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Ewa Kopacz said that she would be making a major policy statement to the lower house of parliament on 26 September, when MPs would vote on a motion of confidence in the new coalition.

An extensive reshuffle is expected to take place before she makes the statement to parliament.

Kopacz will be Poland's second ever female head of government after Hanna Suchocka led a centerist coalition from July 1992 to October 1993, during the presidency of Lech Walesa.

Donald Tusk will take over from Herman Van Rompuy as new president of the European Council in December. (pg)

 

Ewa Kopacz with President Komorowski in Warsaw, Monday: photo - PAP/Jakub Kamiński