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International Last Updated: Dec 8, 2017 - 10:17:00 AM


English-speaking banker to be new Polish PM
By Andrew Rettman, EU Observer, 8/12/17
Dec 8, 2017 - 10:15:22 AM

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Poland's ruling party has replaced prime minister Beata Szydlo with the more EU-friendly face of finance minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

The Law and Justice (PiS) party announced the decision on Thursday (7 December) after a vote by its political committee in which 31 out of 33 members backed the move.

The Polish president is to accept Szydlo's resignation on Friday and to ask Morawiecki to form a new government which will be voted in by the PiS-dominated parliament in early January.

Polish media reported, citing PiS sources, that the switch was carried out on the personal order of the party's chief, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

A reshuffle had been expected for months, but Kaczynski's motives for choosing Morawiecki were not made public.

The 49-year old is a former banker who led Spanish lender Santander's Polish subsidiary and a former economic adviser to the opposition Civic Platform party.

He has led a crackdown on tax evasion in Poland and channelled extra funds into welfare services.

He also speaks fluent English and is highly regarded by EU officials in Brussels for his professionalism during regular meetings of finance ministers.

By contrast, Szydlo, who speaks only Polish, had become the face of Kaczynski's anti-EU politics on Polish judicial reform, EU migrant relocations, and on defiance of an EU court order to stop logging in a primeval forest.

The switch comes ahead of 2019 parliamentary elections.

Some commentators had expected Kaczynski himself to assume public office ahead of the vote, which could see PiS run against a new opposition force led by former Polish leader and current EU Council chief Donald Tusk.

But Kaczynski is already 70 years old and said to be in poor health.


Source:Ocnus.net 2017

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