Poland’s defence minister-designate Antoni Macierewicz believes an explosion caused the 2010 presidential jet crash.
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Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party has announced its new government, with a moderate, Beata Szydlo, as prime minister but a lineup of ministers that analysts say reflects a deeply ideological world view that is pro-American and suspicious of Russian Federation.
Without offering decisive proof, he has accused Moscow of instigating an attack on Kaczynski’s jet in collusion with Poland’s then prime minister Donald Tusk, now the European Union president.
It scored an unprecedented majority, allowing it to govern alone.
Despite investigators in Moscow and Warsaw concluding that pilot error was to blame for the Smolensk crash, Kaczynski – the late president’s twin brother – has also insisted that the crash was not an accident.
“This requires an honest investigation by the justice administration and a normally functioning prosecutor’s office”, Kaczynski said of the crash.
“No extraordinary institutions, no worldwide commissions – unless perhaps someone overseas proposes this – but rather a normal investigation”.
Led by eurosceptic Kaczynski, the party picked up 232 out of 460 seats in the lower house, compared to incumbent Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz’s Civic Platform’s showing of 23.6 percent, or 137 seats.
Poland’s new cabinet is attracting brickbats from Russia’s state-controlled media – no surprise – and from domestic critics of the vocally Russophobic party that swept last month’s elections. Waszczykowski was named candidate for Poland’s new foreign minister, Monday, November 9, 2015.
Waszczykowski also served as Poland’ ambassador to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in Brussels form 1997 to 1999, when the country became the first ex-communist state to join the Western defense alliance.
Another controversial nomination is that of Mariusz Kaminski, a former head of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, to be the coordinator of special services, overseeing police and intelligence agencies.
– Zbigniew Ziobro, a former justice minister who developed a reputation for being overzealous in his attempts to fight corruption returns to head that ministry after an eight-year break.
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Meanwhile, legal expert Pawel Szalamcha will take over as finance minister.
