(Bloomberg) -- Polish ruling-party head Jaroslaw Kaczynski will take over as prime minister next month, Newsweek said, a move that would end weeks of speculation and give the eastern European nation’s top job to its most-powerful politician.
Kaczynski will replace Beata Szydlo, who’s halfway into a four-year term, amid infighting among her ministers, Poland’s edition of Newsweek reported Monday, citing people familiar with the situation that it didn’t name. Kaczynski, who served as premier in 2006-2007, has pledged to keep Poland on the path of “pride, independence and strength” with his Law & Justice party locked in an unprecedented clash with the European Union over democratic standards.
With Szydlo flagging government changes, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin said Nov. 6 that party leaders are considering all options, including a switch of prime minster. Kaczynski, 68, picked Szydlo partly because of his own negative poll rankings, showing him as one of the country’s least-trusted politicians.
Kaczynski has agreed that President Andrzej Duda, a former Law & Justice backbencher, will effectively run foreign policy and attend EU summits, according to Newsweek. Increasing state control of the media and judiciary has put Poland on a collision course with the European Commission, which has begun the first-ever probe into whether a member state is adhering to the bloc’s rule-of-law standards.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council and a former Polish premier for the opposition Civic Platform, lashed out at Law & Justice on Sunday, saying it was forwarding Russian interests by taking itself out of the EU mainstream, undermining the bloc’s s and escalating conflicts with neighbors.
“Strident dispute with Ukraine, isolation in the European Union, walking away from rule of law and judicial independence, attack on non-governmental sector and free media,” Tusk said on Twitter. “Law & Justice strategy or Kremlin plan? Too similar to sleep well.”
©2017 Bloomberg L.P.
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