Tusk, who was visiting India, said he would announce his choice after returning to Poland.
"I have two candidates, two excellent ones, both of them women, very competent," Tusk told reporters.
Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, who also leads the junior coalition partner Poland 2050, announced her departure from the government on Thursday on social media, saying that "values" were "more important" to her "than positions."
Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
Asked about her decision on Friday, Tusk said he had expected her to call him before leaving.
"I thought that before she left, she would at least call and say that she had become bored with the job," Tusk said.
He said he did not want to criticise her personally but acknowledged that their cooperation "has not been the easiest" for some time.
He also said he had the impression that Pełczyńska-Nałęcz was "very politically lost."
Tusk said her departure would not affect the coalition's continued work and described it as an individual decision.
"I don't think it will have any significance for the further work of the coalition," he said.
Pełczyńska-Nałęcz said she was also leaving Poland 2050's leadership, saying she was leaving the party in the hands of its founder, Szymon Hołownia, a deputy Speaker of parliament and a former party leader.
Hołownia said on Friday that Poland 2050 remained part of the governing coalition and should continue to oversee the funds ministry under the coalition agreement.
He said, however, that Pełczyńska-Nałęcz had not formally submitted her resignation as party leader and, to his knowledge, had not formally resigned from the ministry either.
Hołownia said Poland 2050 had candidates for the ministerial post and expected the coalition partners to respect their agreement on the distribution of government responsibilities.
"I believe deeply that these arrangements will be honoured," Hołownia said, adding that the ministry should remain under Poland 2050.
Asked whether the party would leave the coalition if the partners failed to agree on a new minister, Hołownia said it would not leave the coalition but could stop participating in government work.
He said he did not expect such a scenario.
Hołownia also said he would recommend that other Poland 2050 ministers leave the government in solidarity if that happened.
The developments prompted the resignation of another Poland 2050 government official. Deputy Funds and Regional Policy Minister Jan Szyszko said on Friday that he had asked Tusk to dismiss him.
Szyszko accused the coalition partners of focusing on "political polarisation instead of reforms" and argued that the coalition had changed since the 2023 parliamentary election.
"The coalition is in a different place today than it was on October 15, 2023," he wrote on social media, adding that the reaction of some coalition politicians to Pełczyńska-Nałęcz's departure had reinforced his view.
Szyszko also accused the coalition of lacking a "moral compass" and warned that the far-right politician Grzegorz Braun could "benefit from this" in the next election.
Meanwhile, Przemysław Czarnek, deputy leader of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, described Pełczyńska-Nałęcz's departure as a major split within the government that could lead to early elections.
Czarnek said his right-wing party was "open to cooperation" with the former minister.
Hołownia, meanwhile, said he was open to rebuilding cooperation within Poland 2050 after a previous split in the party.
He said the party remained capable of bringing together voters in a part of the political spectrum that, in his view, "should not be left to" the far-right Confederation party.
Pełczyńska-Nałęcz became leader of Poland 2050 before leaving the government. Hołownia said the party would follow its procedures in preparing an election for a new leader once her formal resignation was received.
Poland 2050 ran in the 2023 election allied with the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL). The alliance, known as the Third Way, won 14.4 percent of the vote.
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Source: IAR/PAP, TVP Info, TVN24, polsatnews.pl