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Ewa Kopacz to become next Polish PM?

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 01.09.2014 08:38
PM Donald Tusk, elected as president of the EU's European Council on Saturday, will be meeting with his likely successor as prime minister of Poland, parliament speaker Ewa Kopacz, on Monday.

Speaker
Speaker of Parliament Ewa Kopacz (C) with women's Polish national volleyball champions an cup winners Chemika Police on Friday: photo - PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Polish media is reporting that sources in the ruling centre-right Civic Platform say that Kopacz, a former health minister, will take over as head of the Polish government in December, when Donald Tusk takes up his new role in Brussels.

The 57 year-old Kopacz, currently speaker of Poland's lower house of parliament (Sejm) would also take over the leadership of Civic Platform, which has led the ruling coalition in Warsaw since 2007.

Kopacz said on Friday that she was ready to take over as PM if that was what her party decided.

Other names in the frame to become Poland's new PM include defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak.

Though no meeting between Tusk and his political ally President Bronislaw Komorowski has yet been scheduled to discuss who will take over as head of government, the president's foreign policy advisor Tomasz Nalecz said that the decision has already been made.

Komorowski would not be naming names, however.

“The president is a man of culture and tact and will not be telling the PM's secrets,” Nalecz told the TVN24 broadcaster.

Donald Tusk said at the Brussels summit at the weekend that changes at the top of the Civic Platform-led government - currently trailing the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) in opinion polls - would be announced on Tuesday.

The ruling party faces a crucial test of its popularity, nationwide, in local elections in November.

On Monday, PM Tusk will be taking part in ceremonies marking the start of WWII when Nazi Germans attacked Poland at Westerplatte in northern Poland. (pg)

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