The lady will reconcile the gentlemen

Polish diplomacy has a feminine face

For the first time in the history of Poland, a woman became the Minister of Foreign Affairs - 49-year-old Anna Fotyga. The vacancy of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry became vacant on April 28, when Minister Stefan Möller (until October 31, 2005, Polish Ambassador to Moscow) announced his resignation in protest against the appointment of Andrzej Lepper, a famous populist and leader of a radical party, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture "Self-defense." Mr. Möller, in his words, did not want to participate in the “lepperization of the country.”

Anna Fotyga is a graduate of the Faculty of Foreign Trade of the University of Gdańsk. She headed the foreign department of the All-Polish Solidarity Commission during the period when the current President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, was the deputy chairman of the independent trade union, and is therefore considered his confidant. Later, Mrs. Fotyga collaborated with international organizations, was the director of the department and adviser on international affairs, and even the vice-mayor of Gdansk for economic issues and European integration.

In 2004, on the list of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, Anna Fotyga entered the European Parliament, but in November 2005 she refused a well-paid seat as a European deputy in connection with her transfer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the post of First Deputy Minister.

The opposition considers Mrs. Fotyga particularly incompetent, without diplomatic experience, and wary of making any decisions. The first conclusions of commentators boil down to one thing: Lech Kaczynski himself has actually become Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the resolution of all international issues is being transferred to the presidential palace. One former head of Polish diplomacy remarked: “It was a choice from the telephone book.” But the current government has a high opinion of the new head of the Foreign Ministry. The leader of PiS, which won the parliamentary elections, Jaroslaw Kaczynski (the president’s twin brother) admitted that at first he even wanted to entrust Mrs. Fotyga with the formation of the entire cabinet.

Already as Foreign Minister, Anna Fotyga said that there was a “great possibility” of a meeting between Polish and Russian Presidents Lech Kaczynski and Vladimir Putin this year: “There were many signals of improvement in Polish-Russian relations. We intend to continue this; patient dialogue is the best way to level out problems.”

Valery MASTEROV, staff correspondent for the Moscow News newspaper in Warsaw, for Vremya Novostei