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PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński: New post as deputy prime minister
Photograph:
Andrzej Iwanczuk / NurPhoto / IMAGO
Jarosław Kaczyński is considered the secret leader of the government in Poland, even though he has not held a cabinet post for a year. Now Poland's President Andrzej Duda is changing the balance of power in the government: Kaczyński is allowed to return as deputy prime minister. This was confirmed by a government spokesman in the morning. In Kaczyński's favour, Jacek Sasin, the minister responsible for state participation, must vacate his post as deputy prime minister.
Kaczynski will be the only deputy prime minister in Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's government, a title previously held by four ministers. The aim of this reorganization is probably to make the party founder and mastermind of the Polish national conservatives more visible before the elections in autumn and to equip him with further power competences.
Officially, Kaczyński is expected to return to his old post at noon. In June 2022, he had withdrawn from the government in order to take more care of party work, according to his own statements. In fact, the PiS leader remained influential.
The PiS co-founder was Prime Minister of Poland from 2006 to 2007. Since his party regained power in 2015, he has been regarded as an important puppet master in Polish politics – with or without a government office. Under his influence, national interests have come to the fore in recent years – for example in climate or migration policy.
Return of the hardliner
Parliamentary elections are due in Poland in the autumn. The fact that Kaczyński is now actively re-entering government work is seen as a sign that he wants to gain advantages in the election campaign. At the same time, the ruling PiS party is demonstrating with this step that President Andrzej Duda, Morawiecki, who is considered more pragmatic and moderate, and Kaczyński stand together. Speculation about the state of health of the 74-year-old should also be ended. Kaczyński had been to the clinic several times in the past year.
The national-conservative ruling party PiS is completely aligned with Kaczyński. From the party headquarters on Warsaw's Nowogrodzka Street, which looks somewhat shabby, he determines the political course and decides who is allowed to hold office and who is not. Kaczyński has mastered a two-pronged strategy: with a high level of political instinct, he stirs up fears and enemy stereotypes among his electorate. At the moment, it is about the supposedly high influence that Russia is said to have exerted on the liberal opposition. In the past, migrants or the supposedly corrupt, post-communist judiciary have been the target. At the same time, he wins over his supporters by repeatedly campaigning for social benefits such as child benefit or a 13th pension.
He shares a deep political and personal dislike with the leader of the liberal Civic Platform, former EU Council President Donald Tusk. The election campaign, which is likely to enter its hot phase after the summer, will be a duel between these two men.
mrc/jpu/Reuters