POLISH FM MELLER TO REMAIN UNTIL A SUCCESSOR CAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 000269 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/17/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PL SUBJECT: POLISH FM MELLER TO REMAIN UNTIL A SUCCESSOR CAN BE FOUND REF: WARSAW 9755 Classified By: Political Counselor Mary Curtin, reasons 1.4b,d ¶1. (C) The Polish president and prime minister declined to act on Foreign Minister Stefan Meller's reported resignation, offering instead some general words of support and indications that Meller's concerns about his position (notably his absence from the National Security Council) will be addressed. Both President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz praised Meller's performance and his February 15 report to parliament, although Kaczynski was not especially convincing; queried by journalists while departing Meller's address, the president mumbled that the foreign minister has his support, but that "there are still a few details to be sorted out." Most here believe that Meller's departure is simply a question of time, and that he would be gone already if the government had a suitable replacement. ¶2. (C) MFA Americas Director Henryk Szlajfer explained to us that Meller discussed his concerns with Kaczynski on the long flight back from Washington last week, but evidently the foreign minister was not completely reassured by this conversation, as he went public with his resignation plans immediately afterwards. The National Security Council membership was one slight (Kaczynski now says Meller will be included in the group),but reportedly Meller was also angered by other attempts to diminish his position or otherwise circumvent him. The initial manifest for Kaczynski's visit to Washington had DFM Anna Fotyga (the sole PiS activist in the MFA leadership) instead of Meller, for example. Meller has also fought hard to limit PiS's "de-communization" of the ambassador corps and even the working-level MFA staff; Meller's pick for Moscow, Jerzy Bahr, had reportedly been blocked simply because he had worked for former President Kwasniewski as his national security advisor. ¶3. (C) Comment: Meller appears to have received some promises to induce him to stay on, but few expect that his position will improve or that the Kaczynski brothers will hesitate in replacing him once they find someone capable and willing to take the position. Already an outsider within a government that prizes loyalty, his going public with his grievances probably sealed his fate. ASHE