Morawiecki at opening of Campus Warsaw
Deputy Prime Minister (2015–2017)
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On 16 November 2015, President Andrzej Duda appointed Mateusz Morawiecki as both Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development in the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Beata Szydło.[14] (This took place soon after Mateusz Morawiecki's father, Kornel Morawiecki, was elected to Poland's lower chamber of the parliament[15] and the Law and Justice party won the 2015 parliamentary elections.)
In March 2016, Mateusz Morawiecki announced that he had joined the Law and Justice party.
Finance Minister (2016–2017)
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On 28 September 2016, in addition to his other positions, Morawiecki was appointed Minister of Finance, becoming the second most powerful member of the Government, overseeing the budget, government finances, European Union funds, and overall economic policy.[16]
As finance minister, Morawiecki outlined an ambitious "Plan for Responsible Development", known colloquially as the "Morawiecki Plan", aimed at stimulating economic growth and raising revenues for generous government plans, including "Family 500+" child benefits for all families with two or more children.[17] In March 2017, he took part in a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Baden-Baden, becoming Poland's first-ever representative at that summit.[18][19]
Prime Minister (2017–2023)
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First term (2017–2019)
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Morawiecki with Visegrád Group (V4) leaders and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, Brussels 2017
Morawiecki with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Katowice, 4 December 2018
Morawiecki with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Warsaw, 11 September 2021
Morawiecki with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Warsaw, 10 February 2022
Morawiecki with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin in Warsaw, 5 May 2022
In December 2017, Jarosław Kaczyński, the Chairman of the Law and Justice party, declared that he no longer had confidence in Beata Szydło to be the party's prime ministerial candidate, in part due to perceived conflict between her and other European Union leaders. With her position untenable, Szydło resigned, and Morawiecki quickly won internal party approval to be nominated as her successor. He was sworn in as prime minister of Poland on 11 December, immediately appointing Szydło as his deputy.[20] In his first major address to Sejm, he pledged "continuity" rather than radical change.
[21]
In January 2018, following a highly public racist incident in Warsaw, Morawiecki declared: "There is no place in Poland for racism. The attack on a girl because of her skin color deserves the strongest condemnation. We shall do everything to make Poland safe for everyone."[22]
Mateusz Morawiecki and French President Emmanuel Macron during press conference, 2022
At the Munich Security Conference on 17 February that year, Morawiecki said "it is not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian perpetrators, not only German perpetrators."[23][24] His remark roused controversy and prompted criticism by prominent Israeli politicians, including Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu[23][25] and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.[26] The crisis was resolved in late June that year when the Polish and Israeli prime ministers issued a joint communiqué endorsing research into the Jewish Holocaust and condemning the expression, "Polish concentration camps".[27]
As other Visegrád Group leaders, Morawiecki opposes any compulsory EU long-term quota on redistribution of migrants. In May 2018, Morawiecki said: "Proposals by the European Union that impose quotas on us hit the very foundations of national sovereignty."[28]
Mateusz Morawiecki during meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, 2023
Mateusz Morawiecki with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a meeting in Kyiv, 24 February 2023
In July 2018, Morawiecki said he "will not rest" until "the whole truth" of the World War II-era massacres in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia has been explained. Between 1942 and 1945, members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) killed up to 100,000 civilians in what is now Western Ukraine.[29][30]
On the issue of Brexit, Morawiecki told the BBC in January 2019 that more and more Polish people are returning to Poland from the UK and he hoped the trend would continue to help boost the Polish economy.[31]
In January 2019, Morawiecki said that "Hitler's Germany fed on fascist ideology... But all the evil came from this (German) state and we cannot forget that, because otherwise we relativise evil."[32] Morawiecki wants Germany to pay World War II reparations for the destruction it caused during World War II.[33][34] In August 2019, he said that "Poland has yet to receive proper compensation from Germany… We lost six million people over the course of the war — many more than did countries that received major reparations."[35]
Second term (2019–2023)
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Morawiecki and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal with Ukrainian tank crew members and Leopard 2 tanks provided by Poland, 24 February 2023
On 13 October 2019, Morawiecki led PiS to a re-election victory in that year's parliamentary election. PiS won its highest ever vote in a parliamentary election to date, taking in 43.6% of the national vote and retaining majority government. At the first sitting of the Sejm of the 9th term, he resigned from the Council of Ministers (pursuant to Article 162(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland), which was accepted by the President on the same day.[citation needed]
On 15 September 2020, the Voivodeship administrative court in Warsaw ruled that the decision of Morawiecki to hold the elections only by postal vote on 10 May 2020 was a "gross violation of the law and was issued without [legal] grounds" and violated article 7 of the Polish Constitution, article 157, paragraph 1 and article 187, paragraph 1 and 2 of the Electoral Code.[36] The opposition demanded Morawiecki's resignation.[37]
In October 2021, Morawiecki accused the European Union of blackmail over several issues. However, he downplayed the possibility of a "Polexit" and said that the threat of economic sanctions was a "direct challenge".[38] In July 2021, he became the vice-president of Law and Justice.[39]
In December 2021, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to Warsaw for talks with Morawiecki. They discussed Poland’s dispute with the EU over the rule of law, the long-term EU climate policies and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would bring Russian gas to Germany and bypass Poland.[40] Morawiecki said "we do not want people to suffer as a result" of EU's Green Deal, accusing the bloc's Emissions Trading System of contributing to the 2021 global energy crisis.[41] From 10 February to 26 April 2022, he performed the duties of the Minister of Finance after the dismissal of Tadeusz Kościński.
In January 2023, Morawiecki said he supported the death penalty.[42][43][44]
In February 2023, as the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its second year, Morawiecki told Hungarian President Katalin Novák in a formal meeting at the Bucharest Nine summit in Warsaw that "We must prepare for years-long deterrence and defense against the Russian threat."[45]
In February 2023, Morawiecki said that Poland would "use its own good relations" with Turkey under Erdoğan to persuade it "to the fastest possible, and preferably concurrent, accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO."[46]
In March 2023, he visited Saudi Arabia and met with Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman.[47]
In March 2023, after Xi Jinping's three-day visit to Russia, Morawiecki expressed concern about a "dangerous" China-Russian alliance.[48] On 14 April after the visit of Emmanuel Macron to Beijing, where he met Xi Jinping and caused alarm in Washington because he spoke of France's "sovereign autonomy", Morawiecki went there and read a prepared paper to a diplomatic audience. In those remarks he said that "You can not protect Ukraine today and tomorrow by saying that Taiwan is none of our business. You have to support Ukraine if you want Taiwan to remain independent. If Ukraine is conquered, the next day China can attack Taiwan. I see here a very big connection, a lot of correlation between the situation in Ukraine and the situation in Taiwan and China." This caused the Chinese MFA to react sharply and inimically.[49]
In April 2023, Morawiecki told the Atlantic Council think-tank that: "Our relationship with Hungary changed a lot because of the position of Hungary toward Ukraine and Russia" after the invasion. "We had once very strong cooperation on the level of the Visegrad group [Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia], now much less so."[50]
In July 2023, Morawiecki warned that Poland is not planning to open its borders to imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, saying "We protect our agriculture, that’s why we don’t open borders for agricultural goods from Ukraine."[51][52]
Morawiecki response to Zelensky's 2023 UN Speech
Zelensky's UN Speech in 2023 surprised many members of the Polish political establishment, as the Ukrainian leader accused his Polish counterpart of complicity with Russia due to his refusal to reopen Poland's borders to imports of the agricultural products from Ukraine. Morawiecki's reaction was characterized by immaturity, emotionalism, and hawkish actions, which exacerbated tensions unnecessarily. Rather than pursuing pragmatic diplomatic channels, Morawiecki and the Law and Justice Party opted for a confrontational approach, such as banning future military aid to Ukraine, which was disproportionate and populist. Morawiecki's claim of acting in Poland's national interest lacked credibility and was seen as a cynical move to gain nationalist votes during the parliamentary election campaign, undermining liberal support for Law and Justice. Morawiecki's hawkish response also reflected a dependence on Kaczynski's leadership and failed to convey Poland's commitment to Ukrainian aspirations and regional stability. While attempting to assert Poland's position, Morawiecki's actions damaged the country's reputation as a reliable international actor and neglected the tradition of fostering strong alliances, particularly with allies facing adversity.[53]
Under his government, hundreds of people, including leading opposition figures, were spied on using Pegasus software. Among those targeted whose names have been revealed are Krzysztof Brejza (Civic Platform campaign leader), former foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, former finance minister Jacek Rostowski, Michał Kołodziejczak (leader of a peasant protest movement). In addition to these leading figures, there are also former ministers from Donald Tusk's first governments (2007-2014), three retired Polish army generals, two lobbyists for US arms firms, the president of one of the main employers' organizations, as well as a number of PiS representatives. Much of the information obtained with the software, notably SMS and e-mail correspondence, was made public in manipulated forms by public television. The latter, which was aligned with the government, used this information to organize campaigns to discredit opposition figures.[54][55]
In October 2023, he was re-elected as a member of the Sejm.[56] On 6 November, President Andrzej Duda in his message to the nation claimed that Morawiecki will be designated as prime minister.[57] On 27 November, he was confirmed as prime minister with a new cabinet.[58] However, heavy losses for Law and Justice left his cabinet well short of majority support in the Sejm. His cabinet was defeated in the legislature on 11 December, and former prime minister Donald Tusk was elected his successor.[59]