“Failure to fulfill the coalition agreement will be treated as breaking it,” said Włodzimierz Czarzasty, co-leader of the New Left, when asked about a potential scenario in which, contrary to the agreement, he does not become Speaker of the Sejm. He added that his party would fulfill “all coalition obligations,” because “they knew what they were signing.”
Czarzasty was asked on Friday on TVN24 whether he could imagine a situation in which he does not become Speaker of the Sejm this autumn.
“I don’t know how it will play out, because in the end, it comes down to a vote,” he replied. He added that he “can imagine anything.” However, he emphasized that breaking the coalition agreement would be “a very difficult situation.”
“We will treat a failure to honor this coalition agreement as its breach,” he stressed.
“I think we’re all too smart to let that happen. Today we break the agreement over the Speaker of the Sejm, tomorrow over the Speaker of the Senate, and the day after tomorrow—over the Prime Minister. These aren’t trivial matters. We really need to take responsibility for all of this,” said Czarzasty. He reiterated that the New Left “will fulfill all coalition obligations,” because “we knew what we were signing.”
According to the coalition agreement, the Speaker of the Sejm will remain Szymon Hołownia, leader of Poland 2050, until November 13, 2025. After that, Czarzasty is expected to take over. The New Left co-leader has repeatedly opposed any renegotiation of the agreement, saying there are “no serious voices” calling for such changes. Hołownia, on the other hand, has supported renegotiating the programmatic parts of the agreement.
In Friday’s interview, Czarzasty also responded to comments from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who said that the July 22 date for a government reshuffle, mentioned by Czarzasty, was a “misunderstanding” and that the reshuffle would take place during the next Sejm session, scheduled for July 22–25.
“The Prime Minister is right. The reshuffle will happen during or near that Sejm session, which starts on July 22. And that’s really what it was about,” Czarzasty said.
The New Left politician had spoken on this issue earlier in the Sejm as well.
“This is a classic example of someone adding up simple numbers without adding any commentary. For some, July 22 is associated with Polish history; for the Prime Minister—with Wedel and chocolate. But in reality, the point is that it was moved to the week starting with the Sejm session on July 22, ending four days later,” he explained.