The Polish Sejm and Senate met for the first time after the October parliamentary elections. Following an address by President Andrzej Duda, the outgoing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki resigned from his government, and MPs and senators elected the Speakers of both chambers of parliament.

In his address, delivered at the inaugural sitting of the 10th term Sejm, the President stressed that he would uphold the major achievements of the past eight years.

“These have been good eight years with a positive balance, in which, despite dramatically difficult challenges – such as the crisis caused by the global coronavirus pandemic and the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the stability of our currency’s financial system, and what is extremely important, jobs were maintained”, said Andrzej Duda.

Resigning Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also spoke about the “great crises” that affected Poland and Poles. He mentioned the pandemic crisis caused by COVID-19, which could have led to a gigantic increase in unemployment, the bankruptcy of companies and a sharp setback in the development of the economy.

“We did not only defend millions of jobs, but we saved hundreds of thousands of companies from bankruptcy through our anti-crisis, financial shields”, said Morawiecki. Concluding, he pointed out that “only the authority that does nothing does not make mistakes”.

“Certainly not everything has worked out and I am aware of that. For all our mistakes, stumbles, for our wrong actions, it is certainly worth apologising”, declared Morawiecki.

The Sejm elected Szymon Hołownia, a democratic majority MP and chairman of Poland 2050, as the Speaker of the Upper House at its first session. He received 265 votes, his counter-candidate, the Speaker of the Sejm of the previous term, Elżbieta Witek, won 193 votes.

The Senate has also elected its own Speaker. It will be led by Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska from Civic Platform. She received 66 votes, her counter-candidate Marek Pęk (Law and Justice) received the support of 33 senators.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński