Poland’s new Prime Minister Donald Tusk takes office, ending 8 years of conservative rule

WARSAW, Poland — The new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Cabinet members took office Wednesday after they were sworn in by the president, marking the end of eight tumultuous years of rule by a national conservative party, Law and Justice.

The swearing-in ceremony of the pro-European Union government, the final step in a transition of power, took place in the presidential palace in Warsaw. Tusk was returning to the job after a nine-year spell in opposition.

Leaders and senior officials from around the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said were looking forward to working with Tusk’s team. Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz used Polish to amplify his congratulatory message to “dear Donald Tusk.”

“Donald Tusk wants Poland to be again in the heart of the EU and that’s where her place is,” he said. “I am happy that together, arm in arm with Poland develop the EU and Polish-German relations.”

The countries’ ties were strained under the previous government that exploited the painful World War II history.

The change of government follows a national election on Oct. 15 which was won by a group of parties that ran on separate tickets vowing to work together under Tusk’s leadership to restore democratic norms eroded by Law and Justice and mend relations with foreign allies that were also strained.

Tusk’s government won a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday evening after an inaugural speech in which he vowed to demand that the West keep up its support for Ukraine. The confidence vote was delayed when a far-right lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put out the candles of a menorah during a Hanukkah celebration dedicated to Poland’s Jewish lawmakers of the 1920s and 1930s. Tusk and other leaders sharply condemned the antisemitic provocation.