Polish PM sacks defence, foreign ministers in reshuffle

Poland's new right-wing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sacked his defence and foreign ministers in a major cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, as he seeks to mend strained ties with the country's EU partners.

Controversial defence minister Antoni Macierewicz and foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski lost their jobs along with environment minister Jan Szyszko, among others, in an announcement at an official ceremony held at the presidential palace in Warsaw.

Interior minister Mariusz Blaszczak took over the defence portfolio, while Jacek Czaputowicz, a deputy foreign minister, will serve as foreign minister. Henryk Kowalczyk takes over as environment minister.

The ministers of health and digitisation have also been replaced.

"We don't want to be a dogmatic, doctrinaire or extremist government; we want to be a government that draws together the economy and society, as well as the European and global dimensions with the local level," Morawiecki, who himself took office just last month, said as he greeted his new cabinet.

The prime minister is due to fly to Brussels for talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker later Tuesday focused on the EU's unprecedented disciplinary procedure against Warsaw over its controversial judicial reforms that Brussels insists threaten the rule of law.

In a major escalation against one of the EU's biggest states, Brussels last month triggered article seven of the EU treaty over what it sees as "systemic threats" to the independence of the Polish judiciary from the nation's right-wing government.

Never before used against an EU member state, the proceedings can eventually lead to the "nuclear option" of the suspension of a country's voting rights within the bloc.

Just hours after the announcement, a defiant Polish president went ahead and signed the reforms into law and accused the bloc of "lying" about the reforms.

The row underlines growing east-west tensions within the European Union, with former Soviet bloc states like Poland and Hungary refusing to toe the Brussels line on several thorny issues including judicial and media independence as well as immigration.

Source: AFP