On 5 June 1992, 00:00 AM, after a vote of no confidence was approved, with 273 in favour and 119 against, Jan Olszewski was forced to resign as prime minister and his cabinet was immediately replaced in an event known as the nightshift ("Nocna zmiana").

After Olszewski's dismissal, President Lech Wałęsa designated the little-known and inexperienced Pawlak as caretaker prime minister with the mission, to form a new coalition government with agrarians, Christian democrats and liberals.

Pawlak's potential partners, the Democratic Union and the Confederation of Independent Poland were not ready to agree on a compromise programme.

Kwaśniewski reportedly had an ambition to become "Prime Minister de facto", while Pawlak wanted to retain the power of his office.

Pawlak gave up the prime ministerial Volvo 780 limousine in favour of a FSO Polonez Caro, equipped with a Rover V8 engine to show solidarity with the automotive industry in Poland.

In terms of policy, Pawlak pushed for many leftist reforms while in office, striving for improved workers rights and corporate accountability.

[5] Despite good public approval ratings Pawlak failed in his bid for the Presidency in 1995, finishing a distant fifth (after Kwaśniewski, Wałęsa, Jacek Kuroń and Jan Olszewski) and winning only 770,417 votes (4.31%).

After losing the political battle with Kwaśniewski and, after that, the presidential election, there was a movement to replace Pawlak with Jarosław Kalinowski as party leader in 1997.

[6] The PSL suffered a great political disaster during the 1997 parliamentary elections and became the smallest party in the Sejm (from 132 seats in 1993 to just 27).

After the SLD won decisively in the 2001 parliamentary election Kalinowski became deputy of the new Prime Minister Leszek Miller when the PSL joined the coalition.

Pawlak became leader of the SLD in 2005 after a period of internal turmoil caused by a steady decline the party's popularity.

(Without the PSL votes, the PO would not have a Sejm majority, even though it easily accounts for the biggest political group in the sitting parliament.