Warsaw: Poland’s prime minister-designate on Friday unveiled a new cabinet without Radoslaw Sikorski, who as foreign minister made international headlines for his vocal stance on the Ukraine crisis.
After seven years as top diplomat, Sikorski is likely to take over as parliamentary speaker, the job Ewa Kopacz held before her appointment as premier.
She replaced Sikorski with Grzegorz Schetyna from her centre-right Civic Platform (PO), a choice that reflects her need to boost the party’s chances ahead of the general election next year.
Schetyna was the main PO rival to Donald Tusk, who resigned as prime minister this month and is set to take over as European Council president in December.
Local analysts said that by handing Schetyna the foreign ministry, Kopacz has tried to placate a strong personality that could stoke divisions within the party if left outside the government.
Schetyna, 51, was until now the head of the parliamentary commission for foreign affairs but had previously also served as parliamentary speaker and interior minister.
The new cabinet features many of the same faces, including Mateusz Szczurek as finance minister and ministers from the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL) that makes up the governing coalition with PO.
The cabinet, which includes six women, is due to be sworn in on Monday. The parliament will hold a confidence vote on the lineup on October 1.
