WARSAW — Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and the country’s most powerful politician, will join the Cabinet following a government reshuffle, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced Wednesday.
The move means that Morawiecki, who was chosen by Kaczyński to lead the government in 2017, will now have his party boss as his theoretical subordinate as a deputy prime minister. Serving in his first official post since PiS won power in 2015, he will oversee the defense, interior and justice ministries, who retain their own ministers.
Kaczyński’s presence “will be a big strengthening of our government,” Morawiecki told reporters.
The Cabinet reshuffle was the result of a fight with PiS’s two junior coalition partners, and especially Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister and chief prosecutor who is engaged in a power struggle with Morawiecki.
Ziobro keeps his powerful jobs.
The most controversial appointment is Przemysław Czarnek, the new minister of a combined education and higher education portfolio, who is best known for his anti-gay comments.
In a June TV interview, he called “LGBT ideology” a “putrid, depraved, absolutely immoral action” which endangers Polish families. “Let’s end the discussion about these disgusting LGBT, homosexuality, bisexuality, Pride parades.” He’s also skeptical of feminism.
PiS and President Andrezj Duda unleashed a wave of anti-gay propaganda earlier this year in a bid to boost support from nationalist right-wing voters and elements of the Catholic Church.