President Andrzej Duda dismissed Michał Cieślak, a minister without portfolio embroiled in a post office scandal, at the request of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

While visiting a post office in Pacanów in southern Poland, Cieślak was recognised by the post office director, who approached him and complained about rising prices in Poland, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported.

Shortly after, the director was called before her superiors, who informed her they had received an official ministerial complaint about her and that she would probably lose her job. The complaint was made by Cieślak, who later told journalists that he had reacted too impulsively.

The President of the conservative Law and Justice party and one of the leaders of the governing coalition, Jarosław Kaczyński, called on Cieślak to resign and said that if he did not, he would be removed.

Last Wednesday, Cieślak tweeted that he had chosen to resign. He was finally removed from the government by the president on Thursday.

“Cieślak’s case is closed. He behaved honourably,” Kaczyński commented.

“The reason for Cieślak’s resignation, and rightly so, was arrogance,” Deputy speaker of the lower house of the Polish parliament and co-chairman of the opposition New Left party, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, told Polsat News in an interview.

The post office director has been exonerated and will face no action.

Michal Cieślak had held the ministerial post since October 2020 as a member of the executive dealing with local government affairs.

Source: Euractiv.com