Tusk edits Poland

President Kaczynski is losing political influence

Today, the most popular newspaper in Poland, Fakt (circulation 700 thousand copies), is published under the editorship of the new Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Yesterday morning, the politician was in the editorial office - he held a meeting of the editorial board and a planning meeting, worked on the layout, selected materials and photographs, and edited. Readers are left to evaluate how the leader of the liberal Civic Platform (CP), which won the early parliamentary elections, fulfilled his promise to voters to publish the most widespread newspaper.

The new head of government began to fulfill his election promise to establish a dialogue with Russia the day before . On Tuesday, he said that Warsaw would stop blocking negotiations on Russia's entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This initiative encountered fierce criticism from the entire presidential army. At first, former head of the Foreign Ministry Anna Fotyga noted that the government’s decision raises concerns. Deputy Chairman of the Sejm International Affairs Commission from the Kaczynski brothers' Law and Justice (PiS) party, Pavel Kowal, spoke in unison - to the negative assessment of the decision on the OECD, he added irritation about the desire of the new cabinet to hold consultations with Russia on the deployment of the American missile defense system on the territory Poland. The presidential administration expressed extreme surprise that “the President of the Republic of Poland, who bears his share of responsibility for foreign policy, was not informed on such a very important issue for the strategic interests of our country.”

To this, the Chairman of the International Affairs Commission of the Sejm, Krzysztof Lisek (GP), clarified that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister are responsible for current foreign policy. Pan Lisek believes that “a gesture of goodwill on the part of Prime Minister Donald Tusk can help improve relations with Russia, but the policy of beating one’s fist on the table and flexing one’s muscles has not brought positive results.”

In the presidential palace, feeling that power is slipping out of their hands, they are beginning to lose patience with the unprecedented independence of the ministers of the new cabinet. President Lech Kaczynski was particularly angered by the decisions of the heads of defense and diplomatic departments on the withdrawal of Polish troops from Iraq in 2008 and the transition to a professional army in 2009, which were made without consultation with the head of state. The Prime Minister only aggravated the conflict by declaring that the return of Polish soldiers from Iraq would be accelerated and would take place next summer. Pan Tusk announced that this would happen even if the president was against it.

Yesterday there were reports that the presidential administration is preparing questions for the constitutional tribunal regarding the scope of presidential powers. They want to know how much power in Poland belongs to the president, and how much to the government and its ministers. Pan Tusk reacted to this immediately, noting that the constitution clearly states that the prime minister is responsible for the conduct of foreign policy.

The presidential administration also expects financial troubles, as a result of which relations between the president and the state government may reach an extreme point. Yesterday, deputies from the GP faction announced that they were starting to fulfill their election promise - to cut the budget not only of the government apparatus and the Sejm, but also of the presidential administration. This will lead to staff reductions and freezing of officials' salaries. Cost savings will also apply to entertainment expenses - during the election campaign, liberals reproached Lech Kaczynski for spending too much on alcohol. The opposition calls this revenge and a political struggle, as a result of which the interests of the state will suffer. “We must fight to prevent a situation where the president does not have enough money for a plane to fly on a business trip abroad,” PiS MP Marek Suski passionately defended the head of state.

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