The office of President Andrzej Duda signaled its readiness to discuss ambassador candidacies with the government, but consultations must precede the formal submission of applications, according to Mieszko Pawlak, head of the Presidential Office of International Policy.
At a press conference, Pawlak addressed the ongoing dispute between the presidency and the government, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over ambassador appointments. In a response posted on X, the president explicitly indicated that Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the Foreign Ministry bore responsibility for the absence of ambassadors to the United States, Ukraine, and other key capitals.
Later, Pawlak stated that Poland has ambassadors, but the current government is blocking them from serving in foreign offices, and accusing the president of blocking ambassador nominations amounts to a serious misrepresentation or manipulation.
“It’s the president’s prerogative.”
The head of BPM emphasized that there remains an ambassador to Ukraine, an ambassador to the US, and an ambassador to NATO. If the government believes an ambassador should be replaced, consultation with the president is necessary because appointing and dismissing ambassadors is the president’s prerogative and there is no viable alternative; this approach has been followed in recent years.
For reasons publicly undisclosed, this process has been paused for six months. The government has pressed for changes in these posts regardless of the president’s view or the positions held by his representatives. The president will not tolerate this approach. While he is open to discussing candidacies, such talks must come before the submission of applications, and a situation in which applications are sent without consultation is unacceptable.
– he declared.
“The doors of the presidential palace are open”
Pawlak added that the doors of the presidential palace are always open. If Minister Radosław Sikorski, who has been driving these changes, decides to discuss candidacies with the president, a meeting can take place. At present, there has been no evident willingness to consult the candidates, according to Pawlak.
The conflict between the Foreign Ministry and the presidency over ambassadors has continued since March. The Foreign Ministry later announced that Minister Sikorski had decided that more than fifty ambassadors would end their missions, and that several candidates submitted for approval by the previous leadership of the ministry would be withdrawn. At the same time, the Foreign Ministry expressed hope for joint cooperation among the country’s top authorities in this field.
Charge d’affaires status
Ambassadors who left their posts but were not formally recalled by the president were replaced by diplomats appointed by the Foreign Ministry who, because of the dispute, do not hold ambassador status and serve as chargés d’affaires. This is the case in the United States, where Bogdan Klich took over from Marek Magierowski, as well as in Ukraine, where Piotr Łukasiewicz succeeded Jarosław Guzy.
The situation differs in places where there has been, in recent months, no Polish diplomat holding the rank of ambassador. Israel is an example. Even there, however, the candidate proposed by the Foreign Ministry, Maciej Hunia, received a presidential refusal for nomination. On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated Hunia would soon oversee the management of the Polish embassy in Israel, in the absence of an ambassadorial nomination, in the coming days.
Foreign Service Act
Under the constitution, the President of the Republic of Poland cooperates with the Prime Minister and the competent minister in the field of foreign policy.
Under the Foreign Service Act, the Ambassador is appointed and dismissed by the President at the request of the Minister responsible for Foreign Affairs and with the Prime Minister’s approval. The minister responsible for foreign affairs must seek the advice of the Foreign Service Convention before submitting the application. The Convention comprises the Minister of Foreign Affairs or a designated member of the ministry, the Head of the Foreign Service, a representative from the President’s Chancellery, and a representative from the Prime Minister’s Chancellery.
To read more on the topic, commentators have noted that the president views certain remarks as manipulation, while the Prime Minister and the Foreign Ministry argue that the absence of ambassadors rests with the country’s foreign policy institutions. This assessment has been reported by multiple outlets and reflects ongoing national discussions about how ambassadorial appointments should be handled. Cited from wPolityce.