Dispute over Poland’s representative to NATO. Mastalerek: Tusk would like to have the powers of the President of the Republic of Poland without running for election

The dispute between the government and President Andrzej Duda over Poland’s representative to NATO is part of the campaign before the European Parliament elections, Marcin Mastalerek, President Andrzej Duda’s chief of staff, emphasized on TOK FM radio on Monday. “Then the government will behave more rationally,” he added.

On Monday, Mastalek was asked on TOK FM radio about the dispute between the government and the president over the filling of the position of the Polish representative to NATO. Currently, this position has been held by Tomasz Szatkowski since 2018; In his place, the government appointed Jacek Najder, former ambassador to NATO, who last week received the recommendation of the Sejm Committee on Foreign Affairs.

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— Government pressure regarding the change of the Polish ambassador to NATO. Presidential Minister: No attempt has been made to reach an agreement

— Siemoniak’s nasty suggestions towards Szatkowski. “This knowledge is not public. He should never have become ambassador.”

The president says no

Andrzej Duda announced that he would not agree to Jacek Najder becoming the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to NATO, as this candidacy had not been consulted with him, which he considers a failure of the procedure. According to the president, the resignation of the current ambassador to NATO, Tomasz Szatkowski, just before the NATO summit in Washington in July, could disrupt preparations for this event. Tomasz Siemoniak, head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration and coordinator of special services, said in turn that the president had received data from one of the secret services with information about Szatkowski.

In an interview with TOK FM, Mastalek emphasized that the government in Poland should conduct foreign policy in consultation with the president. Although the government should have freedom, for example in appointing the ambassador to the European Union, he says NATO and security issues, among others, are the domain of the president. as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. As he said, the president stated this in a conversation with Prime Minister Tusk in December last year, agreeing that the new government would fill the position of ambassador to the EU.

Tusk’s expectations

According to Mastalerk, “Donald Tusk would like to have the powers of the President of the Republic of Poland without participating in the presidential elections.”

I believe that Donald Tusk and Jarosław Kaczyński (PiS leader) are very similar. They have an election campaign and they want conflict. President Duda strives for cooperation

– he declared.

The head of the President’s Office assessed that regardless of whether the management of the Polish Foreign Ministry changes after the European elections and reshuffles in the EU leadership – and current Minister Radosław Sikorski, for example, becomes EU Commissioner – “the government will behave more rationally in the matter of ambassadors.” “Why? Because today is an election campaign and Donald Tusk is doing everything he can to create arguments, because he needs to mobilize his electorate,” Mastalerek said.

Mastalerek also ruled that Siemoniak made a mistake by informing the media about classified information about Szatkowski that had been provided to the president. “I won’t talk about it. I’m only talking about one thing: first information came from the government that Tomasz Szatkowski should not be ambassador, and then they started looking for a baton to beat him with. In my opinion, these documents that Minister Siemoniak is talking about are nothing but a cudgel against Tomasz Szatkowski,” said Mastalerek.

gah/PAP