Can the president refuse the appointment of the deputy prime minister? Only in one case

The Sejm rejected the opposition's motion to dismiss the Minister of Finance Andrzej Domański, and Donald Tusk announced that he would appoint him as deputy prime minister. The head of government has already submitted a motion in this matter to Karol Nawrocki, because according to the constitution, it is the president who makes changes in the government at the request of the prime minister. However, the president's representatives sharply criticized this move. "The worst Prime Minister of the 3rd RP wants to make the worst Minister of Finance of the 3rd RP the deputy prime minister. They are like mown in a basket - only Poland is sorry" wrote Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the president's office, on the X service. "Shame and laughing in the face of Poles" added Paweł Szefernaker, head of the president's cabinet. These statements raised questions about how the president will handle the motion. His press spokesman Rafał Leśkiewicz responded evasively on Radio Zet that "this is the president's decision," but MEP Waldemar Buda went a step further on Polsat News: "In my opinion, the president has a certain degree of discretion in this regard. If he takes any action here, he has the right to think." "Graffiti" Polsat News, October 21, 2026 The former minister in the PiS government added that the constitution does not specify a term for the president, so "he can say: please, let's see how the public debt shapes up in the next year, then I will make the decision in this regard." The prime minister himself spoke in this discussion, stating that "we all know the constitutional provisions and who is responsible for what in the Polish state," and if the president "were to decide to violate the constitution in this matter, I would have to say that this scenario would be very risky for Poland." With the help of constitutionalists, we explain what the fundamental law says about the president's role in the process of appointing deputy prime ministers and whether he has "a certain degree of discretion". Can the president refuse the appointment of a deputy prime minister? The procedure for changing the composition of the government is described in a single sentence, Article 161: The President of the Republic, at the request of the Prime Minister, makes changes to the composition of the Council of Ministers. Everything depends on the interpretation of this provision. As we read in the "Review of Constitutional Law" from December 2025: "The interpretation of Article 161 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland prevails in the literature, according to which the President of the RP is absolutely bound by the prime minister's request to make changes to the composition of the Council of Ministers." The author of this article, constitutionalist Dr Maciej Pach from the Jagiellonian University, agrees with this interpretation: "In no case can the political freedom of the President of the RP in this regard be allowed." "The legal nature of the request to the President of the Republic of Poland to make changes to the composition of the Council of Ministers," "Review of Constitutional Law" no. 2025/6(88) The president's discretion in this matter is excluded by two other constitutionalists with whom Konkret24 spoke. "The Constitution states explicitly that the president makes such changes at the request of the prime minister" states Dr Marcin Krzemiński from the Department of Constitutional Law at Jagiellonian University. This is confirmed by Dr Mateusz Radajewski from the SWPS University: "According to the dominant view in doctrine, it is accepted that the president cannot refuse the nomination requested by the prime minister for political reasons." Dr Radajewski lists two arguments. He notes that according to the constitution, the government is responsible for the work of its members in the form of a constructive vote of no confidence, by which the prime minister can be changed. "The Prime Minister must have freedom in shaping the personnel composition of the government for which he is politically responsible. He cannot share this responsibility with the president, since the president is in no way responsible to the Sejm" he explains. "Exercising the powers from Article 161 of the Constitution has not been assigned to the prerogatives of the president, and therefore requires the prime minister's counter-signature each time. Therefore, the arguments that the president has freedom in exercising his prerogatives do not apply in this case" he adds. "Refusal can be motivated only by..." We are talking about the impossibility of refusal "for political reasons," because constitutionalists believe that the president can refuse the nomination if the request itself contains formal or legal errors, for example regarding the candidate himself. "It is about cases where some absurdity would occur. For example, if the candidate did not have full legal capacity or if the request concerned a deceased person" explains Dr Marcin Krzemiński. Dr Maciej Pach also agreed with this in his 2025 article: "Refusal can be motivated only by legal-constitutional grounds. (...) In the situation where the prime minister requests an unconstitutional change in the composition of the government, the President of the RP should be granted the right to refuse to consider it." When the president must make changes in the government There remains the question of the time within which the president's office must organize the ceremony for the appointment of the new deputy prime minister. Let us remember that the last one took place in July 2025, when the president Andrzej Duda appointed Radosław Sikorski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as deputy prime minister as part of the government reconstruction. Waldemar Buda believes that if the constitution does not specify any term, the president can wait and "see how public debt shapes up in the next year." Constitutionalists, however, have a different opinion. "The lack of a term in the context of such powers means an obligation to act immediately. The president should therefore organize the ceremony for the appointment of the deputy prime minister as quickly as his obligations allow" explains Dr Mateusz Radajewski. "This may mean postponing the appointment by a few days in some situations, for example, when the president is on a foreign visit" he adds. According to constitutionalist Dr Kamil Stępniak, the president's action in this matter, other than immediate action, "can be considered a violation of the constitution, as well as a crime." The President of the Center for Constitutional Law and Monitoring Rule of Law added however in his Instagram post that "the rules of criminal liability of the president are involved here, which is difficult to pursue him."