WARSAW: One week after Poland’s new government was sworn in, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has replaced the entire leadership at the helm of the country’s intelligence services, reported German news agency (dpa).
After advising the relevant committee and receiving a statement from President Andrzej Duda, he decided to dismiss the heads of the anti-corruption agency CBA, the domestic and foreign intelligence services and Poland’s two military intelligence services, Tusk said in Warsaw on Tuesday.
Agnieszka Kwiatkowska-Gurdak will become the new head of the anti-corruption authority, while Colonel Rafał Syrysko will take over the leadership of the domestic intelligence service.
Tusk leads a pro-European three-party alliance of the former opposition, which emerged victorious from the parliamentary elections in October, breaking the eight-year grip on power of the nationalist populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Tusk was only able to take office last week after the PiS, which has been in power since 2015, delayed the transfer of power.
The parties in the current government accuse the PiS of using the secret services to spy on their political opponents.
The new prime minister also announced that he would soon appoint a successor to police chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk. The general was subject to nationwide ridicule in December last year when he accidentally triggered the explosion of a grenade launcher at police headquarters, which had been given to him by Ukrainian colleagues.
Szymczyk, who is close to the PiS, nevertheless remained in office. - Bernama, dpa
