Polish prime minister reshuffles his Cabinet
Changes intended to ease tensions with European Union.
WARSAW, POLAND — Two months after coming into office, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland announced a sweeping reshuffle of the government Tuesday, a move seen as an effort to punish political rivals while improving the governing party’s image abroad as it engages in a bruising battle with other European nations.
Morawiecki announced the dismissal of a third of his Cabinet, including the foreign minister, the defense minister and several others with tense relationships with European leaders. He was then set to fly to Brussels, where he was scheduled to have a working dinner with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
In laying out the changes at a news conference Tuesday, Morawiecki also reiterated Poland’s stance against Muslim immigrants. The country, he said, needed to be “safe at its external borders as well as inside the country.”
“Poland is a beautiful yacht sailing across the increasingly unknown seas and oceans,” he said. “But whether it docks safely in the port depends not just on strong sails, but also our crew.”
He added that the new government was seeking “to reconcile the European dimension with our Polish, local dimension.”
In December, the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, used the most powerful threat in its arsenal to pressure Poland from continuing on a path it viewed as undermining the rule of law and democratic values, invoking Article 7 of the EU’s founding treaty, which could strip Poland of its voting rights.
Since coming to power two years ago, the right-wing Law and Justice Party has increased its control over the media, sought to curb public gatherings and curtailed the independence of the Civil Service and the prosecutor’s office.
In an act of clear defiance, President Andrzej Duda approved of an overhaul of the nation’s judicial system on the same day that European leaders issued their unprecedented warning.
Critics say the changes to the judicial system effectively give the party control over the courts. The Polish government says they are needed reforms meant to correct a system plagued by corruption and links to the days when this country was under the yoke of Moscow.
While Juncker and Morawiecki were expected to discuss the current crisis, it was considered unlikely that Poland would make any changes to the judicial laws.
In fact, any concrete action against the country seems unlikely, as it would require unanimity from all the EU’s other member states, and Hungary has vowed to stand behind Poland.
Last week, the two nations made a show of solidarity, with Morawiecki traveling to Budapest to stand with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Orban predicted a “year of great battles” with Brussels to preserve “Christian culture” against waves of migrants from Africa and the Middle East.
He said he believed that the immigration policies of Western Europe had been a failure and that the election of right-wing, populist parties in Central Europe was evidence that their ideas had the support of the people.
It is a delicate moment for Juncker and other European leaders, who are not only dealing with challenges to the east but also trying to manage Britain’s exit and the Catalan separatist movement in Spain.