2020-10-06 17:12 update: 2020-10-08, 15:27
Phot. PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Polish President Andrzej Duda appointed new ministers in the reshuffled Mateusz Morawiecki cabinet on Tuesday afternoon, except for the new education and science minister, Przemyslaw Czarnek, who has contracted coronavirus.
Morawiecki presented the new composition of the government last Wednesday. The number of ministries has been cut from 20 to 14. Some ministries have been liquidated, with their competences being taken over by already existing or new ones.
During a Tuesday ceremony held in the gardens of the Presidential Palace, Morawiecki was appointed the Minister of Digitisation.
Ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski was appointed deputy prime minister. Kaczynski will oversee the interior, justice and defence ministries.
Apart from Kaczynski, there will be three other deputy PMs.
Piotr Glinski, who held the post of deputy prime minister and Culture Minister, was reappointed deputy PM and appointed Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport.
Jaroslaw Gowin was appointed deputy PM and Minister of Development, Labour and Technology.
Jacek Sasin will continue as deputy PM and State Assets Minister.
Tadeusz Koscinski will be head of the new Ministry of Finance and Funds. The Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Climate are merged into the Ministry of Climate and Environment, to be headed by Michal Kurtyka.
Marlena Malag will lead the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, and Grzegorz Puda will head the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Michal Cieslak and Michal Wojcik were appointed as ministers at the PM's Office.
The appointments were initially planned on Monday but were postponed to Tuesday owing to Czarnek's contraction of coronavirus.
At the appointment ceremony, Duda said that the main task ahead of the new government was to combat the coronavirus epidemic and its economic effects. Duda said this will require "good and wise decisions," and voiced hope that the government would manage to cope with the challenges involved. He also highlighted the importance of well-weighed investment as a means to bring the national economy out of the epidemic crisis.
"This is a time for good and wise decisions, which will have to be made. This is a time for investment that must be carried through in Poland, a time for the execution of all the promises that fell in successive campaigns, and which we have not realised yet. I believe that together we will manage to do this," the president said. (PAP)
