Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday that President Karol Nawrocki and his circle are refusing to cooperate in the area of foreign policy. He complained to the media that representatives of the President’s Chancellery are encroaching on the government’s competencies and that the head of state is avoiding conversation with him. The remarks were commented on by the Head of the Presidential Chancellery, Zbigniew Bogucki, who presented a different picture of the situation.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveled to Helsinki for a summit of the EU’s eastern flank. Before departing, he appeared at a media briefing, where he referred to cooperation with President Karol Nawrocki and to media reports that the president’s entourage, according to Gazeta Wyborcza, had sought to “monopolize” preparations for Poland’s participation in the G20 meetings.
The prime minister said that the president and his circle are refusing to cooperate on foreign policy. “It’s not just about the G20. In fact, almost every day we encounter attempts to undermine the authority of the Polish government and of Poland by someone from the president’s entourage, and this serves our interests very poorly,” Tusk stated.
The head of government added that he had attempted “close cooperation with the president” in the sphere of foreign policy, “but for many weeks now there has essentially been no response.” “Including not answering the phone,” he said. Tusk also assessed that “the beginnings were not too bad,” because “at least the president replied to text messages.”
Asked whether he contacts the president frequently, he replied that he had stopped doing so because “it did not produce results.” He also expressed the conviction that cooperation in this domain is “an obvious necessity and a constitutional duty,” but, he added, the president and his entourage are trying to maintain a conflict and to encroach on the government’s competencies.
Is the prime minister lying?
It is worth noting that government representatives have repeatedly attacked the president’s circle for conducting foreign policy. At the same time, they have appealed to Nawrocki to hold talks with the United States, with which they do not have – putting it mildly – the best relations. The prime minister’s words are also contradicted by the Head of the Presidential Chancellery, Zbigniew Bogucki. The politician recalled that the prime minister and the president have spoken many times.
“If the prime minister wanted to meet with the president, he met with him the very next day. When there were commemorations of the anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, they also spoke with each other; I remember the Cabinet Council. I am convinced that if the prime minister wants to talk with the president, a place and time for a meeting will be found,”
he said on TVN24’s Fakty po Faktach.
Referring to the issue of Nawrocki not answering the phone, he stated that he “has no such knowledge.” “The president is truly open; he meets with various groups,” he said.