Pełczyńska-Nałęcz leaves Tusk's government and is expelled from Polska 2050

Resignation and expulsion

Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz announced on X on Thursday, 22 October, that she was leaving Donald Tusk's government and giving up the leadership of Polska 2050. The decision followed a Sejm vote on scrapping the two-term limit for local government heads, which the PSL backed and which some members of the ruling coalition supported. She had opposed the change and accused coalition partners of striking political deals instead of acting in citizens' interest. One report argued that the attacks on her from coalition colleagues came mainly because she was the only minister willing to push back against Tusk.

“I am leaving Donald Tusk's government because values matter more to me than positions.”

On Saturday, 24 October, Szymon Hołownia, the founder of Polska 2050, said the party board had removed her from the party for acting to its detriment and against resolutions of its statutory bodies. She answered on X that she had been "sentenced to exile for thoughtcrime" and addressed Hołownia by name in a mocking reply.

Szyszko and the Strasbourg question

Jan Szyszko, deputy minister of funds and regional policy, announced his resignation on Friday, 23 October, and said he had asked Prime Minister Donald Tusk to dismiss him. Speaking on the Debata Gozdyry programme on Polsat News, he argued that a minister who no longer agrees with the line of the party that gave him his mandate should leave government. He said his mandate to sit in government had expired and that he did not believe in apolitical ministers. The row with Giertych began on X, where the KO MP asked Pełczyńska-Nałęcz whether Szyszko had told her about his talks with PiS MEPs Adam Bielan and Michał Dworczyk in Strasbourg, and whether she believed their promises. Szyszko replied that the meeting concerned a declaration prepared by the Polish government on development funds in the new EU budget. Giertych then suggested the talks had also covered her possible move to Rozwój Plus.

“When it comes to Polish matters, party divisions disappear for me. But people like Giertych will never understand that.”

Szyszko added that the national interest should stand above party lines and that his former ministry had also met MEPs from other groups, including KO.

A weekend of exchanges on X

Before the Sunday exchange, coalition colleagues had already used harsh labels against her, including "hysterical egocentric". On Sunday, 25 October, she replied to Giertych on X with a question of her own, asking what good he had done for Poland and its people during this term, which problem he had solved and which important law he had passed.

“Please tell people what good you have done for Poland and its people during this term.”

She then called Giertych the ringleader of a gang of haters on X and a leading promoter of camp polarization, saying she could not see him acting as a messenger of the people at all. Giertych kept the exchange going on X, and naTemat reports that he quoted the poet Adam Mickiewicz in his reply. So far, the dispute has played out on X and in party statements.