Pior Polak/PAP

Mateusz Morawiecki, the current prime minister and the Law and Justice (PiS) candidate tasked with forming the new Polish government, is not on a “desperate mission,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of PiS, has said.

Kaczynski was interviewed for PAP on Friday as parties jostle to form the next government.

Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has given Morawiecki the first opportunity at forming a government, but while PiS won the most parliamentary seats in the October 15 general election, it fell short of a majority.

This means if PiS wants to remain in power it needs to form a coalition but, with no party willing to work with it, its chances of doing so are slim.

“This is not a desperate mission,” said Kaczynski. “At most it may end up with us failing to get a vote of confidence in parliament, which is not a big thing in a democracy.”

Kaczynski would not be drawn on just who PiS is talking to about a coalition, saying only that he did not want “to speculate about this” and that negotiations should take place behind closed doors.

If PiS fails to form a government and becomes the opposition, he added, it will “be united and organised.”