Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced on Friday that the ambassadors nominated by the government would stay in their positions in the rank of chargé d'affaires if the president-elect Karol Nawrocki did not sign their nominations. This includes Bogdan Klich in Washington and Richard Schnepf in Rome. The head of the MFA stressed that he saw no reason to change Schnepf's nomination, calling him a good typical of Poland.
Sikorski in an interview with RMF FM radio answered questions about president-elect Karol Nawrocki's announcements. Nawrocki had previously declared that he would not sign the appointment of Bogdan Klich as Ambassador of Poland to Washington and Ryszard Schnepf as Ambassador of Poland to Rome.
When asked about the anticipation of changing Schnepf's nomination to another person, the minister replied unequivocally. "I see no reason, he is simply a good typical of our country" - said Sikorski.
The conflict has continued since March 2024
The argument for ambassadorial nominations between the government and president Andrzej Duda began in March 2024. President-elect Karol Nawrocki repeatedly declared that he supported the main abroad policy directions of Duda and criticized the government for any ambassadorial appointments.
Last March, Sikorski decided to end the mission by over 50 ambassadors. respective candidatures submitted for acceptance by the erstwhile department management were withdrawn.
President blocks nominations
President Duda stressed that “no Polish ambassador can be appointed or cancelled without the signature of the President”. In place of ambassadors who left the facilities but were not formally cancelled by the President, they hit the diplomats indicated by the MFA.
Because of the conflict, they have no position as ambassadors, but chargé d'affaires. This is the case, among others, in the USA, where erstwhile head of the MON in the PO-PSL government Bogdan Klich replaced Marek Magierowski. president Duda repeatedly made it clear that he did not consider Klich to be a suitable figure in the position of ambassador to the United States.
First signatures after 1 year of delay
At the beginning of April this year, the head of the MFA reported that after a year of delay, the first requests for countersignates of ambassadorial nominations were received from the presidential law firm. The president signed the nomination for Agnieszka Bartol as a permanent typical of Poland to the European Union.
In early May, it was informed that the head of the MFA had given nominations to recently appointed ambassadors. Among them were Tadeusz Chomicki in Singapore, Maciej Hunia in Israel, Małgorzata Kosiura-Kaźmierska in Norway, Artur Orzechowski in Estonia and Michał Murkociński in Egypt.
New appeals on the horizon
At the end of June, the head of the presidential law firm Margaret Paprocka confirmed reports of receipt of papers concerning the cancellation of 3 ambassadors. This concerns Jakub Kumoch - Ambassador to China, Adam Kwiatkowski - Ambassador to the Vatican and Paweł Soloch - Ambassador to Romania.
The conflict over ambassadorial nominations shows a dispute between the government and the presidency on human resources policy in diplomacy.
(PAP) Note: This article was edited with Artificial Intelligence.
