Polish president invites FM to discuss ambassadorial appointments
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has invited Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to a meeting on January 26 to discuss the problem of ambassadorial appointments.
Nawrocki and his predecessor, Andrzej Duda, both affiliated with the main opposition party, the socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), have rejected a number of ambassadorial nominations since the centrist coalition led by Donald Tusk took over the government from PiS in December 2023. This has led to a serious diplomatic impasse, with a number of ambassadorial positions, including that in Washington, still vacated.
In Poland, ambassadorial nominations have to be signed off by the president.
Marcin Przydacz, head of the President's Office, reported on Nawrocki's invitation on Wednesday, as he was entering the foreign ministry building to attend a meeting.
Przydacz said that in a number of Poland's diplomatic missions the top posts were manned by charges d'affaires, not ambassadors, and "this situation is not optimal."
He put the blame for the situation on Sikorski, reiterating Nawrocki's claim that the problem resulted from the foreign minister's initial decision to dismiss 50 ambassadors "without a word of fact-based explanation."
But, Przydacz said, the president "is ready for talks to resolve the situation" and "will expect certain actions" on the foreign minister's part.
The two politicians have already met once, but the get-together failed to bring any tangible results.
Przydacz also said that the days of Bogdan Klich, Poland's charge d'affaires in Washington, "are numbered" and that Sikorski had already come to terms with this fact.
"We all know that the key issue here is the staffing of the Washington office," Przydacz said. "As we learned from Minister Sikorski's letter, he has already come to terms with the fact that Mr Klich will not be the ambassador to Washington and [Sikorski] is withdrawing from this proposal."
Nawrocki has said he will never appoint Klich as the ambassador to the US or Ryszard Schnepf as the ambassador to Italy. (PAP)
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