WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a cabinet reshuffle on Friday, with the coordinator of special services Tomasz Siemoniak taking on the additional post of interior minister.
The reshuffle was forced as four ministers in the pro-European coalition government led by Tusk's Civic Coalition (KO) are stepping down to run in European Parliament elections in June. Tusk said a major task of his government was to make state-owned enterprises more efficient.
The other three changes saw art historian Hanna Wroblewska named the new culture minister, while Krzysztof Paszyk from the junior coalition Third Way party becomes development minister and Jakub Jaworowski was appointed minister of state assets.
Jaworowski, an economist who served as deputy minister in the previous Civic Coalition administration, will oversee state-owned companies which critics say became politicised during eight years of rule by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS), which was voted out of office last year.
"We will continue to clean up state-owned companies, because there is still a lot to clean up... There are still many tasks awaiting the new minister in this area. We want state-owned companies to run a common, well-thought-out strategy for the economy," Tusk said.
Polish President Andrzej Duda will formally appoint the new cabinet members on Monday.