Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that, as part of the upcoming government reshuffle, there is no deputy prime minister position planned for Poland 2050. Why? One can only speculate. Let us recall that Szymon Hołownia recently faced a wave of backlash for visiting the apartment of one of Law and Justice’s most prominent MEPs, Adam Bielan. Jarosław Kaczyński was also present at the meeting.
On Thursday, the Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, visited the apartment of Adam Bielan, a key Law and Justice MEP. Jarosław Kaczyński was also in attendance. News of the meeting leaked to the media, and photojournalists arrived on the scene. Pro-government outlets published stories about alleged secret talks, and some politicians and supporters of the ruling coalition began to criticize the leader of Poland 2050.
Emotions only intensified over the weekend. Hołownia clearly felt the pressure, as on Monday he held a press conference where he admitted that the location of the meeting, which he had agreed to, was “a mistake.” However, he insisted that the meeting itself was not. Nevertheless, pro-government media continue to frame the incident as a scandal. On Wednesday, during an interview on TVN24, Hołownia was even asked whether he felt like a traitor to the government, his party, and coalition partners for “going to an enemy’s apartment.”
Meanwhile, Donald Tusk announced that… as part of the government reshuffle, there would be no deputy prime minister position allocated to Poland 2050.
“At the moment, that’s definitely not on the table (a deputy prime minister post for Poland 2050). I mean, as part of the government reshuffle, I do not foresee a deputy prime minister position for Poland 2050, and that position definitely won’t exist,” Tusk declared at a press briefing in Rome.
The prime minister also addressed the date of the reshuffle—July 22—mentioned by Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Włodzimierz Czarzasty (The Left).
“That’s a misunderstanding. I don’t know where Speaker Czarzasty got that date (July 22) from, because Speaker Hołownia wants to take a short break for some personal reasons, but he still wants to be present at these key talks for obvious reasons, so I had no issue with that. Speaker Hołownia said the reshuffle would happen when the Sejm is in session, and that’s between July 22 and 25,” said the prime minister.
“So I laughed that maybe July 22 would make Speaker Czarzasty happy, but not really me. So we agreed that it would happen during that time (during the Sejm session), but definitely not on July 22. Speaker Czarzasty has a sense of humor, and sometimes it shows… Yes, he has a rather sophisticated sense of humor, so he probably allowed himself a little fun with the dates. But no, don’t worry, there won’t be a ‘Wedel-style’ [i.e., symbolic or sentimental] date for the reshuffle,” Tusk added.