WARSAW, July 10: Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Monday nominated his brother Jaroslaw as prime minister, paving the way for a world-unique double act which would see identical twins holding the top two government posts.
“The president of the republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, has designated Jaroslaw Kaczynski as prime minister,” the presidency said in a statement.
The widely expected announcement came shortly after outgoing Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz submitted his resignation and it was accepted by President Kaczynski.
Marcinkiewicz’s resignation at the head of Poland’s coalition government means his whole cabinet automatically quits.
Marcinkiewicz, who made the surprise announcement Friday that he was standing down, just nine months after being nominated for premier — by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, as party leader — will head the government until a new cabinet is appointed.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, now has two weeks to name a new cabinet and an agenda for governing Poland.
He will present both to lawmakers, who will then have a further two weeks to approve his nomination as premier and his proposed government programme.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski has said that his new government will be the same as that of Marcinkiewicz, apart from a new finance minister.
On Sunday, Kaczynski said he had invited deputy finance minister Stanislaw Kluza, 34, a former chief economist for Polish bank BGZ, to take up that post, which was vacated last month when Zyta Gilowska resigned, amid accusations she had lied about her ties to the communist-era secret police.
Marcinkiewicz named his economic adviser Pawel Wojciechowski to replace Gilowska, and analysts have said that this appointment could have helped to hasten the outgoing prime minister’s departure because it was seen by PiS bosses as going above Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s head. —AFP
