Tusk reshuffles cabinet to replace 4 ministers
WARSAW: Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday announced a reshuffle of his Cabinet to replace four ministers running for the European Parliament next month.
The changes are also seen as a chance to bring new energy into Tusk’s government, which took office in December and embarked on deep reforms in many areas, including justice and the media.
“Today comes the time of bringing order and this is one of the reasons for which we jointly decided to have these changes,” Tusk said.
Tusk’s pro-european Union government has embarked on a wide reversal of the policies of its right-wing predecessors, the Law and Justice party, who between 2015 to 2023 put Poland on a collision course with the 27-member EU.
Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who spearheaded the change of management at the state TV, radio and news agency, and the minister of the interior and administration, Marcin Kierwinski, were replaced.
The ministers for state assets, Borys Budka, and for development and technology, Krzysztof Hetman, were also leaving.
The new interior minister is Tomasz Siemoniak, who had served as the defense minister in Tusk’s previous government in 2011 to 2015.
He retains his job of co-ordinator of special services at a time of Russia’s war on Poland’s neighbour Ukraine.
The culture minister is now Hanna Wroblewska, while Jakub Jaworowski was put in charge of state assets, where auditing is currently taking place to uncover cases of mismanagement.
Krzysztof Paszyk, an experienced politician and lawmaker, is the new minister of development and technology. The reshuffle came just hours before a major protest planned in Warsaw by the Law and Justice, seeking to win seats in the June 9 elections to the European legislature.
They were joining with farmers protesting new EU agriculture policies to cut green gas emissions, called the Green deal.
A Polish judge with access to military secrets, who asked for asylum in Belarus, looked set to face espionage charges on Thursday, after a Polish court said it was lifting his immunity.