Jacek Sasin, who is minister for state assets, made the announcement in an interview with public broadcaster Polish Radio on Monday.
Sasin told Polish Radio: “Mateusz Morawiecki is the natural candidate for prime minister.”
He added: “So far, it has been the custom in Poland that the party with the most seats, even if they don’t constitute a majority, gets to try and form a government.”
However, in the event that the opposition forms the government, Sasin said his Law and Justice (PiS) party would focus on “holding the new government to account,” Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He told Polish Radio that his party would work to “ensure that the achievements of the current government are not squandered,” as well as "propose good policy ideas.”
Meanwhile, the opposition parties have announced plans to release a joint statement outlining their intentions to form a new government.
Michał Kobosko, a senior politician with the opposition Third Way alliance, said the three groups making up Poland’s "democratic opposition" would issue such a statement on Tuesday, the PAP news agency reported.
Kobosko, whose centre-right Poland 2050 grouping is part of the Third Way, told private broadcaster Radio Zet that Tuesday’s statement would pave the way for talks on a coalition agreement and the creation of a new Cabinet.
A day earlier, Maciej Lasek from the main opposition grouping, the Civic Coalition (KO), told broadcaster Polsat News that the opposition was planning to issue a joint statement ahead of government formation talks with President Andrzej Duda, the PAP news agency reported.
The president is expected to hold meetings with political party leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss government formation after the parliamentary elections.
The ruling conservatives won Poland's October 15 election, but lost their parliamentary majority, increasing the likelihood of an opposition government.
The governing Law and Justice party, allied with two smaller groupings in a United Right coalition, claimed 35.4 percent of the vote and 194 seats in elections to the lower house of parliament.
Meanwhile, the largest opposition bloc, the Civic Coalition, led by the Civic Platform (PO) party, won 30.7 percent of the vote and 157 seats.
The Third Way alliance finished third at the ballot box with 14.4 percent of the vote and 65 seats, and the opposition New Left party finished fourth with 8.6 percent and 26 seats.
The far-right Confederation group, with 7.2 percent of the vote, also crossed the 5-percent voter support threshold that Polish parties need to clear to enter parliament. It secured 18 lower-house seats.
The Civic Coalition, led by former Prime Minister and European Council President Donald Tusk, the Third Way and the New Left together hold 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house.
In addition to seizing control of the lower house, the opposition won 66 senatorial seats, while the ruling conservatives secured 34 seats in the upper house of Poland's bicameral parliament.
The 100-seat upper house, the Senate, is less powerful than the lower chamber, but it can delay or amend legislation. The Sejm, the lower house, needs to muster an absolute majority to override Senate amendments.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, money.pl