MFA DEMORALIZED AND WEAKENED UNDER FM FOTYGA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 WARSAW 002312

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PL
SUBJECT: MFA DEMORALIZED AND WEAKENED UNDER FM FOTYGA

REF: A. WARSAW 02040


B. WARSAW 01522

Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR MARY T. CURTIN FOR REASONS
1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: President Lech Kaczynski's tight grip on
foreign policy has squeezed out his own Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) with a corresponding loss of effectiveness in
European institutions and overall quality in Polish foreign
policy. The politicization of top and mid-level positions,
frequent personnel changes, introverted leadership and
long-standing vacancies at MFA stand as evidence of the
President's disregard for the foreign policy establishment.
As a result, Poland's considerable foreign policy talent,
proven during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, seems
forgotten by a government focused on domestic matters. The
leadership remains solid on its foreign policy principles,
including its attachment to a strong U.S.-Polish bilateral
relationship and commitment to overseas engagements, but its
effectiveness in pursuing a number of regional diplomatic
objectives has clearly declined. END SUMMARY.

MFA Foreign Policy Role Diminishing
--------------


2. (C) President Lech Kaczynski and his brother PM Jaroslaw
Kaczynski came to power a year ago on the anti-corruption
platform of the Law and Justice (PiS) party and have since
focused their attention largely on domestic issues. The
Kaczynskis see their chief accomplishments to date as the
creation of the new Anti-Corruption Bureau and the reform of
Polish military intelligence to root out the remnants of
Communist-era secret police influence. They want a stronger
presidency and more centralized government. To accomplish
these goals much of PM Kaczynski's efforts have gone toward
creating and maintaining a governing majority at almost any
cost, including bringing in as coalition partners the
populist Self Defense (SO) and conservative Catholic
nationalist League of Polish Families (LPR). Foreign policy
is often perceived as almost an afterthought.

FM Fotyga: Loyalty Trumping Expertise
--------------


3. (C) The Kaczynskis' inward-looking approach, desire to
strengthen the presidency, and emphasis on loyalty over
expertise have put increasing pressure on foreign policy
professionals at the MFA. In February 2006 President
Kaczynski replaced the PiS government's first foreign
minister, career diplomat Stefan Meller, with then Deputy FM
Anna Fotyga, a long-time confidante with little foreign
policy experience. The media-clumsy Fotyga also has
difficulty with internal management of the MFA's professional
staff, with whom she seems to share a strong mutual distrust.
Eighty percent of Poles cannot identify her as the foreign
minister, and 80% of those who can think she performs poorly.
Commentators and bureaucrats alike lament her
indecisiveness, and the common perception is that Fotyga
consults with the president on the smallest matter. In a
recent press report an unnamed MFA official said MFA staff
refer to her office as the "black hole," because it takes
weeks for decisions to come out. For example, Deputy FM
Barbara Tuge-Erecinska was nominated as to London in May 2006
but did not receive the necessary documentation from Fotyga
until October 26, barely in time for President Kaczynski's
November visit to London! Indeed, Poland now has 16
ambassadorial posts unfilled around the world including at
the EU, arguably Poland's most important post abroad after
Washington.


4. (C) The morale of foreign policy professionals at MFA has
been hurt in part by Fotyga's weakness and the Kaczynskis,
lack of interest, but perhaps even more of late by the
politicization of personnel decisions. In the past political
appointments did not reach below the level of Under
Secretary; department directors and below were assigned

SIPDIS
according to civil service rules and the MFA personnel
system. However, on October 27 a new civil service law
entitled "Act on the State Personnel Pool" entered into
force, which now empowers the government to fill a much wider
range of public posts with political appointees.

Personnel Changes Taking a Toll
--------------

5. (C) Until recently the major thrust of the Kaczynskis
personnel changes at MFA (as at MOD and elsewhere) has been
to root out anyone with links to the former Communist regime.
We learned recently from MFA contacts that President
Kaczynski will not name anyone to an ambassadorial position
who was educated or trained in the former Soviet Union. For
example, the presidential chancellery recently refused an MFA
proposal to nominate as Ambassador to Iraq career diplomat

WARSAW 00002312 002 OF 003


Stanislaw Smolen (a Middle East expert and previously MFA
liaison to the Polish Multinational Division Center South in
Iraq),apparently on the sole grounds that he had attended
the Soviet diplomatic academy in Moscow. Smolen has instead
been sent to Baghdad as designated Charge d'Affaires, with no
immediate prospect of an ambassador being named.


6. (C) Recently, however, the Kaczynskis' suspicions
extended to intellectuals associated with the Solidarity
movement, particularly the former Freedom Union (UW) party
and its successor Civic Platform (PO). Anna Grupinska,
summarily fired in September as Director of the MFA UN
Department, told PolCouns that Fotyga and the Kaczynskis had
not trusted her because of her close association with former
Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, a UW founder. Former MFA
Americas Department Director Henryk Szlajfer, an extremely
close Geremek confidant and one of the most senior career
officials at MFA, received a phone call from his own deputy
on October 27 (while on a two-month teaching stint in the
U.S.) informing him that he had been dismissed from his post
and assigned to head the MFA Records Department. The
Kaczynskis' distrust of UW/PO connections can even extend to
their own party members. We have heard that PiS politician
Pawel Zalewski, Chairman of the Sejm Foreign Affairs
Committee, a moderate working actively to promote a
Polish-German rapprochement, was passed over for foreign
minister because he had belonged to UW in the 1990s. Indeed,
the press speculates that Fotyga is committed to rescreening
anyone appointed under former FMs Geremek and Krzysztof
Skubiszewski of UW.


7. (C) The list of senior career staff shunted into less
influential positions recently includes Africa & Middle East
Director Krzysztof Plominski and Consular Affairs Director
Tomasz Lis, who were both dismissed October 27 with Szlajfer,
as well as Pawel Dobrowolski, the former MFA spokesman who
was replaced in June for failing to denounce vigorously
enough a German newspaper story that satirized the Kaczynski
brothers. (N.B. The story was widely believed to have been
the reason that President Kaczynski canceled his
participation in a long-planned Weimar Triangle Meeting.) In
addition, MFA Under Secretary and seasoned diplomat Stanislaw
Komorowski resigned from his position (but not his foreign
service status) after arguing with the president (a long-time
personal friend) that coalition political antics were hurting
Poland's image abroad. Civil service protections mean that
none of these professionals were dismissed from the MFA
entirely - most have remained, some even receiving
ambassadorships, but their influence in policy-making is
dramatically reduced.

Kaczynskis See President's Role
as Primary, Yet PM Becoming Engaged
--------------


8. (C) In addition to these personnel upheavals, there has
been a general shift of decision-making away from the MFA to
the presidency, with a lowering of the foreign policy profile
of the Prime Minister. This is a deliberate strategy, part
of the Kaczynskis' program to promote the presidency. While
former President Alexander Kwasniewski expanded the role of
the president in foreign policy decision-making (especially
on security matters),his prime ministers maintained their
strong role in foreign policy, and had foreign affairs
advisors and staffs to reflect that role. But the president
does not have a large foreign policy staff, and his new
national security advisor has not, thus far, played an active
role except on security policy.


9. (C) However, the Prime Minister is beginning to accept
that he must play a stronger role in foreign policy, as
evidenced by his September visit to the U.S., and his October
30 visit to Berlin to start to repair Polish-German
relations. His foreign policy advisor told us the PM had
not, at the beginning wanted a strong foreign policy role,
both by personal preference and because of the Kaczynskis,
commitment to strengthening the presidency. But he had
gradually been drawn into it, and will likely become
increasingly more involved. Several people told us that the
decision to send the president, rather than the prime
minister, to the EU Summit at Lahti reflected the president's
desire to meet Russian president Putin, rather than a broader
plan to emphasize the president's role in foreign policy.

--------------
Comment
--------------


10. (C) The upheavals at the foreign ministry had been
anticipated for some time, and were made more difficult by
the absence of a group of strong foreign policy specialists
amidst the domestically-focused PiS leadership. The loss of
clout and personnel upheavals at the MFA have clearly had an

WARSAW 00002312 003 OF 003


impact on Poland's ability to lead on regional issues, a loss
noted by EU diplomats in particular. But while the core of
MFA professionals grumble, they are solid professionals who
remain committed to advancing Polish foreign policy. For the
most part, other professionals have replaced those who were
removed.


11. (C) More importantly, the fundamentals of Poland's
foreign policy remain solid. The brothers prize Poland,s
relationship with the United States. In his initial speech
as Prime Minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski stated, "Poland is in
alliance with the United States, this alliance has been
maintained and strengthened by some joint undertakings." He
and the President have reiterated the primacy of our
relationship on numerous occasions. The Kaczynskis,
steadfast support for coalition operations in Iraq and quick
decisions to commit troops to Lebanon and Afghanistan
underscore their commitment. Their domestic coalition
partners do not agree with these policies, and have taken
advantage of recent disarray in the governing coalition to
voice their opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan
deployments, but they have not been allowed a role in foreign
or security policy decision-making, and we do not foresee
this changing. But Poland's effectiveness in the EU and
elsewhere has been diminished, and its ability to lead will
take some time to repair.
ASHE