Poland PM Tusk unveils new Cabinet in bid to reverse decline in popularity
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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (left) speaking at a press briefing to announce changes in his government, in Warsaw, on July 23.
PHOTO: AFP
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- Polish PM Tusk reshuffled his Cabinet on July 23 to regain momentum amid falling approval ratings, promoting Radoslaw Sikorski and creating new ministries.
- A "superministry" combining finance and economy will be led by Andrzej Domanski, aiming for "viable financial and economic centre", while Milosz Motyka will head energy.
- The reshuffle follows declining poll numbers and criticism from the opposition, but Tusk urges supporters to remain optimistic despite Nawrocki's presidential victory.
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WARSAW - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a Cabinet reshuffle on July 23 in a bid to regain momentum amid falling approval ratings and potential clashes with the new, opposition-backed nationalist president.
Since Mr Karol Nawrocki’s victory
Under the reshuffle, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister while keeping his current post.
“We as a government need a very strong political figure in international relations,” Mr Tusk told reporters.
To consolidate oversight of economic affairs, he announced a new superministry combining finance and the economy to be headed by current Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski.
“The most important structural undertaking is building a viable financial and economic centre. There will be a single centre operating transparently and implementing a comprehensive economic policy,” Mr Tusk said.
Mr Milosz Motyka from junior coalition party PSL will head a newly created Energy Ministry.
A judge, Mr Waldemar Zurek, was named to run the Justice Ministry as it seeks to shore up rule-of-law standards that critics say deteriorated under the previous nationalist government.
Mr Tusk’s coalition has steadily declined in opinion polls since mid-2024.
In July, the share of government opponents rose to 48 per cent while the government’s support held steady at 32 per cent, the latest poll by the Centre for Public Opinion Research showed.
Polls have traced the government’s drop in popularity to public disenchantment with a lack of concrete achievements, with the opposition landing effective blows over a failure to stem undocumented migration into Poland.
The reshuffle drew criticism from the main opposition Law and Justice party, which lost power in the 2023 election.
The party’s vice-president, Mr Mariusz Blaszczak, said in a post on social media platform X: “Reconstruction means nothing other than the further destruction of Poland. Some incompetents were replaced by others.”
Mr Nawrocki, who will be sworn in as president on Aug 6, has questioned the coalition’s pro-European, liberal agenda but said he is willing to accept moves to increase the tax-free pay threshold and deregulate parts of the economy.
“All laws that will be good for Poles will meet with my approval,” he said in a televised interview on July 21.
Mr Tusk, in his remarks announcing the reshuffle, called on supporters not to despair after Mr Nawrocki's presidential victory.
“No defeat, including the presidential election, justifies this mood or despair, this slackness, these thoughts of surrender... The time of post-election trauma definitely ends today,” the former European Council president said. REUTERS
