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Poland External Relations Briefing: Change in the Position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska

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Poland External Relations Briefing: Change in the Position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska ISSN: 2560-1601 Vol. 32, No. 4 (PL) September 2020 Poland external relations briefing: Change in the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska 1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11. +36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: CHen Xin Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01 Change in the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs At the end of August, Zbigniew Rau was appointed to the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. This was a surprising change in the office of the head of diplomacy during a rather difficult situation with Poland's closest neighbours. Where does this change come from, what are the new Minister's priorities and plans for the nearest political future? Resignation of the current head of diplomacy On August 26, President Andrzej Duda officially appointed Zbigniew Rau as the new head of Polish diplomacy. Rau replaced the former MFA, Jacek Czaputowicz, who signalled already in July this year that he would like to leave the office. On August 20, Czaputowicz officially resigned, arguing that "after the presidential elections (which took place at the end of June and July 2020 - author's note), it is a good time to change the head of Polish diplomacy". Czaputowicz held this position from January 9, 2018. Previously, he was the director of a department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, head of the Diplomatic Academy, deputy head of the Civil Service Council and director of the National School of Public Administration, as well as deputy foreign minister responsible for legal and treaty matters. Czaputowicz is a recognized scientist dealing with international relations, not related to any political party. His choice as the head of Polish MFA, however, aroused some controversy from the beginning, in particular when the chairman of the ruling Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, stated bluntly that he had plans for a person other than Jacek Czaputowicz to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but at the last moment this person withdrew from the mission. From this point of view, the candidacy of Minister Czaputowicz, as Kaczyński described, "is an experiment." Czaputowicz, referred to as "Kaczyński's experiment", became known during his 2.5 years in term as an official largely dependent on Prime Minister Morawiecki, President Duda and PiS chairman Kaczyński. Although he tried to achieve independence and maintain a certain autonomy - in particular in contacts with Americans, as exemplified by the organization of the Middle East Conference; an attempt to amend the Act 447 of the American Congress (on the return of property to victims of the Holocaust); or joining the Alliance for Religious Freedom. Relations with Ukraine, Lithuania and France have also undoubtedly improved during his term. However, the summary of his tenure is all in all rather weak. The most of his steps were very 1 uncertain. By leaving, Czaputowicz left Polish relations with the European Union in a state of decay (the endless dispute over the rule of law, the current dispute over the "LGBT-free zones" established in some regions of Poland), and Polish relations with Germany in a very difficult situation (almost 3-month deadlock on the adoption of new German ambassador to Poland, Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven), as well as tense relations with Belarus and Russia. He was seen as a puppet in the hands of PiS, serving directly the interests of the party, and not the Polish raison d'état. He was thus accused of holding the position of chargé d'affaires in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and not a Minister himself, because in the PiS government it was the Prime Minister who implemented European policy and the President - the transatlantic policy. In rather bitter words, it was indicated that Czaputowicz could only run small talks with his counterparts, do handshakes and take care of official matters – yet, he had no influence on real politics. Carousel with names after Czaputowicz's resignation At the time of the announcement of Czaputowicz's resignation, a media carousel with the names of potential candidates for this office was launched. One of the candidates for the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs was to be Konrad Szymański, the current Minister for European Affairs. In turn, the position presently held by Szymański would be taken by one of the deputy heads of the ministry - Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk or Paweł Jabłoński. Jacek Saryusz-Wolski was also taken into account, formerly a member of the European Parliament belonging to the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO; the largest opposition party in Polish parliament), and now belonging to PiS. In 2017 Saryusz-Wolski was the Polish government's candidate for the position of the President of the European Council. There was also talk of the former deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jan Dziedziczak, and Zbigniew Rau, a PiS deputy, who in 2015-2019 was the voivode of the Lodzkie region. And it was the latter candidate who ultimately received a ministerial nomination. Profile of the new head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs In recent years, Zbigniew Rau served as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and in 2020 he became chairman of the delegation of the Polish Parliament to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Like Czaputowcz, Rau is a scientist, associated with the University of Lodz, although he also worked at many foreign universities (in Germany, Great 2 Britain and the United States). Since 2006, he has been a full professor and works as the head of the Department of Political and Legal Doctrines and the Center for Political and Legal Thought of Alexis de Tocqueville at the University of Lodz. During presidential elections in 2005, he supported Lech Kaczyński (twin brother of Jarosław Kaczyński, who died tragically in the Smolensk catastrophe in 2010), and in the same year was elected as senator to the upper house of Polish parliament. In 2015, he became the voivode of Lodzkie region, yet in 2019 he returned to parliament, this time as a deputy. Then he was appointed head of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee. Since taking up the function of MFA, Rau has jumped into the shoes of his predecessor. He clearly stated that during his work "the previous foreign policy and directions set in the past months and years will be continued, with the coordination of activities between the government and the President". Comment Zbigniew Rau is a non-obvious choice, perhaps heralding a change in the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself. The new Minister - unlike Czaputowicz - is above all a politician who does not avoid clear ideological declarations. Rau, while still the voivode of Lodzkie region, wrote about the West as a "civilization of death", favored the extreme right- wing patrols of the National-Radical Camp, calling them a manifestation of "civic responsibility". He also suggested that in the event of the next election of the president of Lodz Hanna Zdanowska, who is associated with the Civic Platform, he would personally terminate her mandate (as a voivode, he had such powers if there were prosecution charges). In fact, from the very beginning, he was ideologically close to the core of the PiS party. At the same time, back in the 1990s, he cooperated with George Soros, whose foundation supported his research projects. Today, the billionaire Soros is one of the greatest ideological opponents of the Polish right-wing parties. Importantly, Rau has competence in foreign affairs, which was evidenced in recent months as he was the head of the relevant committee in the parliament. He also has a relatively strong position in PiS - thanks to this, it can be assumed that he will stay in his position until the end of the current parliamentary term. It seems that Rau will be more independent from Prime Minister Morawiecki (to whom he politically owes nothing), and perhaps he will try to 3 rebuild the position of the Polish MFA, which was very much stripped of competences in recent times, and which Czaputowicz was unable to prevent. Therefore the situation, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs being systematically marginalized, may now change. Although Zbigniew Rau's nomination is seen as a return to the strong politicization of this function and a strong link between the MFA and Law and Justice party, it also offers an opportunity for greater independence. Taking into account the planned reconstruction of the government, Minister Rau can count on increased powers in European and transatlantic politics. Today, he is seeking support from the countries of the region - he has already consulted the ministers of the Visegrad Group countries, participated in the Strategic Forum organized in Bled (Slovenia), expressed his strong support for the European aspirations of the Western Balkan states and stressed the need to actually start accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia as soon as possible. However, the key issue now seem to be the situation in Belarus and the protests that have been taking place there for many weeks. Minister Rau declares that a dialogue between the Belarusian authorities and representatives of the Belarusian society should begin as soon as possible in order to resolve the political crisis, and that Poland will support the efforts of Belarusians in this matter. This problem will surely attract the Minister's interest in the coming months. Taking into account the Polish raison d'état, it would be good if Poland became an advocate of Belarusian affairs on the international arena. 4 .
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