New Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki wins confidence vote

Warsaw (dpa) - Poland‘s new right-wing prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, won a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday, vowing to continue his Law and Justice (PiS) party‘s social programme, with an added focus on the economy.The former bank manager won the confidence vote by 243-192 in the lower house of the Polish parliament in the early hours of Wednesday.Before the vote, Morawiecki had laid out his plans for government, building on the social policies of the party‘s winning manifesto from 2015, and combining a new focus on the economy."A booming economy is the foundation of generous social policies," he said.Morawiecki plans to continue with the same cabinet as his predecessor, Beata Szydlo, who resigned unexpectedly last week. The trained economist - who had until the government line-up change been finance minister - plans to take on the finance and economic development portfolios himself.Szydlo is to become Morawiecki‘s deputy. "This is a government of continuity," Morawiecki said.One of the first tasks facing Morawiecki is to improve ties with the European Union, which has been concerned by his party‘s attempts to radically reform Poland‘s judiciary and media. Brussels says the reforms give the government too much power to appoint judges and could impact on the independence of the courts.But Morawiecki has already said he completely backs the reforms.Despite the change of prime minister, the controversial head of the PiS party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is still considered to be the real power broker in Poland.He appeared on Polish television station TVP on Wednesday to praise Morawiecki as an extraordinarily talented politician.