Jaroslaw Kaczynski has resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, who from now on only wants to continue his work as the president of the ruling coalition Law and Justice (PiS) party - this was announced by the politician himself in an interview published on Tuesday morning.
"I submitted my resignation to the prime minister, and he accepted it. As far as I know, the head of state also signed it," Kaczynski told the PAP news agency.
He said: Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak will replace him as Deputy Prime Minister.
"It's a completely natural decision. There is a war, and he is the minister of defense, in an emergency situation there are great advantages of such a connection," he noted.
Kaczynski already threatened to resign last October, when he said that he would leave his post at the beginning of this year. In Tuesday's conversation, he linked his decision to the need for more efficient management of PiS before the parliamentary elections due next fall. He confirmed that he had postponed his departure until now because of the war in Ukraine.
"I wanted to work in the government four months shorter, but the war in Ukraine broke out," he said.
He added: recent developments in the war also show that "we don't know when it will end". On the other hand, he was aware that "approximately when the election will be held, so I had to decide, and I did," he said. In October 2020, Jaroslaw Kaczynski became the deputy prime minister overseeing the ministries of internal security and defense, but he also retained the position of party chairman, which he had held without interruption since January 2003. In his previous press statements, he called the assumption of the post of Deputy Prime Minister temporary and indicated that he would return to his "real job, that is, party leadership" after completing certain tasks.
In the interview on Tuesday, he assessed that he "managed to fulfill his set plan". He admitted, however: the plan did not include the war in Ukraine. Previously, Kaczynski called the preparation of the law on defense spending and increasing the number of the army one of the priority tasks to be performed in the post of deputy prime minister. The legislation was adopted by the Polish parliament in March.
"We want to arm ourselves in such a way that a possible attack on our country would be a completely unreasonable undertaking," Kaczynski said on Tuesday.
Source: MTI
Featured image: Gazeta Wyborcza/Facebook
