On 11 December 2017, following prime minister Szydło's resignation, Morawiecki was nominated to succeed her by the chief staff of the Law and Justice party, which he joined in 2016. He led the party to win a second-term in the2019 Polish parliamentary election. On 27 November 2023, after the United Right had failed to secure majority in the Sejm in the2023 Polish parliamentary election, Morawiecki became the leader of acaretaker government. On 11 December 2023, Morawiecki lost thevote of confidence from theSejm, effectively terminating hiscabinet's tenure. He remained acting prime minister until 13 December 2023, when his successor and leader of the oppositionDonald Tusk was sworn in as prime minister.[1][2]
Mateusz Morawiecki was born 20 June 1968 inWrocław,Silesia, toKornel Morawiecki (3 May 1941 – 30 September 2019), physicist andFighting Solidarity leader), and his wife Jadwiga (22 May 1930 – 3 August 2025), chemist and opposition activist.[3]
Morawiecki stated in a press interview that at the age of 12[4] he helped his father copying underground political literature and in August 1980 he plastered the streets ofWrocław with posters calling for a general strike.[5] Aftermartial law was declared in 1981, he helped print and distribute undergroundSolidarity magazines. As a son of a well known opposition activist, he was sometimes detained and intimidated by the police.[6] In an interview, he said he threwMolotov cocktails at police cars[5] and was on many occasions stopped and beaten by Poland's secret police (Służba Bezpieczeństwa,SB). Another reason for this was his sympathising with the Hippie movement as an early teenager, a time during which he underwent an arrest due to alleged cannabis possession. This was also the time he first encounteredRyszard Terlecki – a precursor of the Hippie movement in Poland, and later one of his close coworkers. In connection to this, Morawiecki has mentioned that his colleague from the PiS party "knows perfectly well what fighting for freedom means".[7]
In the 1980s, at the age of 12, he edited an illegal political newspaperLower Silesia Bulletin and was active in theIndependent Students' Association. He continued taking part in political demonstrations until the late 1980s and participated in occupation strikes at theUniversity of Wroclaw in 1988 and 1989. He co-organised the Club for Political Thought "Free and Solidary".[8]
In 1991 Morawiecki began work at Cogito Company and co-created two publishing firms, Reverentia and Enter Marketing-Publishing. That same year he co-founded the magazineDwa Dni (Two Days), later becoming editor-in-chief.
In 1995 he completed aninternship atDeutsche Bundesbank in credit analysis, financial restructuring, banking supervision, and financial market supervision. In 1996–97 he conducted banking and macroeconomic research at theUniversity of Frankfurt.[11] In 1998, as deputy director of the Accession Negotiations Department in the Committee for European Integration, he oversaw and participated in numerous areas, including finance, of the negotiations forPolish accession to the European Union.
With Frank Emmert, he co-authored the first textbook onThe Law of the European Union published in Poland.
From 1996 to 2004 Morawiecki lectured at theWrocław University of Economics, and from 1996 to 1998 also at theWrocław University of Technology. He sat on policy committees at many institutions of higher education. From 1998 to 2001 he was a member of the supervisory boards of the Wałbrzych Power Company, Dialog (a local telephone-service provider), and the Industrial Development Agency. From 1998 to 2002 he was a member of theLower Silesian Regional Assembly.[12]
From November 1998 Morawiecki worked forBank Zachodni WBK,Santander Group, where he began his career as deputy chair of the supervisory board, and supervisor of the economic analysis bureau and the international trade department. In 2001 he became managing director and a member of the board. In 2007–15 Morawiecki was chairman ofBank Zachodni WBK.[13]
On 28 September 2016, in addition to his other positions, Morawiecki was appointedMinister 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 ofG20 finance ministers inBaden-Baden, becoming Poland's first-ever representative at that summit.[18][19]
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 asprime minister of Poland on 11 December, immediately appointing Szydło as his deputy.[20] In his first major address toSejm, he pledged "continuity" rather than radical change.[21]
In January 2018, following a highly publicracist incident inWarsaw, 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]
Morawiecki and French PresidentEmmanuel 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 wereJewish perpetrators, as there wereRussian perpetrators, as there wereUkrainian perpetrators, not onlyGerman perpetrators."[23][24] His remark roused controversy and prompted criticism by prominent Israeli politicians, includingIsraeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu[23][25] and Israeli PresidentReuven 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 otherVisegrád Group leaders, Morawiecki opposes anycompulsory 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]
Morawiecki during meeting with U.S. PresidentJoe Biden, 2023Morawiecki with the President of Ukraine,Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a meeting in Kyiv, 24 February 2023
On the issue ofBrexit, 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'sGermany 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 wantsGermany to payWorld 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]
On 13 October 2019, Morawiecki led PiS to a re-election victory inthat 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, theVoivodeship 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 thePolish 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 ofblackmail 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 ChancellorOlaf Scholz came to Warsaw for talks with Morawiecki. They discussed Poland’sdispute with the EU over the rule of law, the long-term EU climate policies and theNord 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'sGreen Deal, accusing the bloc'sEmissions Trading System of contributing to the2021 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.
Morawiecki was one of the first European leaders to call for sanctions against Russia, following theRussian invasion of Ukraine, calling the invasion a "crime" and "an act of barbarism". He travelled to Brussels for an emergency meeting of the European Council and called for freezing Russian assets, cutting Russia off from SWIFT and blocking Nord Stream 2.[42][43] He was one of the first European leaders to support sending military equipment to Ukraine, which he did himself as Prime Minister.[44] He also opened the Polish border to Ukrainian refugees, which led to about 2.1 million refugees entering the country in March 2022.[45] Morawiecki's uncompromising support for military aid to Ukraine was met with backlash from some far-right and nationalistic politicians, such asKrzysztof Bosak.[46]
In February 2023, as the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its second year, Morawiecki told Hungarian PresidentKatalin Novák in a formal meeting at theBucharest Nine summit in Warsaw that "We must prepare for years-long deterrence and defence against the Russian threat."[50]
In February 2023, Morawiecki said that Poland would "use its own good relations" withTurkey underErdoğan to persuade it "to the fastest possible, and preferably concurrent, accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO."[51]
In March 2023, afterGeneral Secretary of the Chinese Communist PartyXi Jinping's three-dayvisit to Russia, Morawiecki expressed concern about a "dangerous"China-Russian alliance.[53] On 14 April after the visit ofEmmanuel Macron toBeijing, where he met CCP general secretary 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 thatTaiwan is none of our business. You have to support Ukraine if you want Taiwan to remain independent. If Ukraine is conquered, the next dayChina 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.[54]
In April 2023, Morawiecki told theAtlantic 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."[55]
In July 2023, Morawiecki warned that Poland is not planning to open its borders to imports ofagricultural products from Ukraine, saying "We protect our agriculture, that’s why we don’t open borders for agricultural goods from Ukraine."[56][57]
Under his government, hundreds of people, including leading opposition figures, were spied on usingPegasus software. Among those targeted whose names have been revealed areKrzysztof Brejza (Civic Platform campaign leader), former foreign ministerRadoslaw Sikorski, former finance ministerJacek 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' organisations, 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 organise campaigns to discredit opposition figures.[58][59]
In October 2023, he was re-elected as a member of the Sejm.[60] On 6 November, PresidentAndrzej Duda in his message to the nation announced he would designate Morawiecki as prime minister.[61] On 27 November, he was confirmed as prime minister with a new cabinet.[62] However, heavy losses for Law and Justice lefthis cabinet well short of majority support in the Sejm. An opposition coalition fronted by former prime ministerDonald Tusk had enough seats between them to defeat Morawiecki and nominate Tusk in his place. As expected, Morawiecki's cabinet was defeated in the legislature on 11 December, and Tusk was elected his successor.[63]
Pope Francis with Morawiecki and his family during a private audience at theVatican, 2018
Morawiecki is married to Iwona Morawiecka, with whom he has four children: two daughters (Olga and Magdalena) and two sons (Jeremiasz and Ignacy).[66][67]
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