WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk promoted Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to deputy prime minister on Wednesday as part of a government reshuffle aimed at stemming a decline in its approval ratings.
Sikorski will also keep his post as foreign minister while Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski will become Minister of Finance and Economy, overseeing all economic departments in the centrist, pro-European government, Tusk said.
Since nationalist Karol Nawrocki’s victory over Tusk’s liberal ally Rafal Trzaskowski in June’s presidential election, tensions in the ruling Civic Coalition have risen and raised doubt about its future under a veto-wielding president.
Tusk’s government has steadily declined in opinion polls since mid-2024. This month, the share of government opponents has risen to 48% while the government’s support has held steady at 32%, the latest CBOS poll showed.
As part of the reshuffle, Milosz Motyka from junior coalition party PSL will head a newly-created energy ministry while the justice ministry, which is seeking to shore up rule of law standards that critics say deteriorated under the previous nationalist government, will be headed by judge Waldemar Zurek.
(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, Barbara Erling and Anna Koper; writing by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; editing by Mark Heinrich)
