Geopolitics
Antoni Macierewicz - Poland’s New Defence Minister
Walka z korupcją to jeden z priorytetów Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej - graf. MON.
Antoni Macierewicz has been sworn in, to become the head of the Ministry of Defence, in the government led by Prime Minister Beata Szydło.
Antoni Macierewicz was appointed to become the Minister of Defence of Poland by President Andrzej Duda. According to the information that had been available earlier on, Bartosz Kownacki is going to become the secretary of state of the Ministry of Defence. At this position he is going to be responsible, among other issues, for the defence procurement programmes. Tomasz Szatkowski is going to become the undersecretary of state. Szatkowski’s responsibilities are to include the international cooperation issues.
The newly sworn-in Beata Szydło’s government also features Mariusz Błaszczak, who acts as the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration. Witold Waszczykowski took the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mariusz Kaminski is going to act as the the coordinator of special services, overseeing police and intelligence agencies.
Antoni Macierewicz, within the period between 2005 and 2007, has been working as the Vice-Minister of Defence in the government led by Jarosław Kaczynski. Macierewicz was responsible for liquidating the Military Intelligence Agencies, and he acted as a proxy, dealing with creation of Counter Intelligence, working at a position of undersecretary of state in the former Ministry of Defence. Starting from October 2006 until November 2007, Macierewicz took the position of the Chief of the Polish Military Counter-intelligence. He was dismissed, as he became a Member of Parliament, during the VI term. Macierewicz took part in the election as a member of Law and Justice party. Starting from July 2010, Antoni Macierewicz has been acting as the head of the parliamentary group dealing with investigation of the Smolensk Tu-154 crash. He was re-elected in 2011 and in 2015.
Earlier on he had been working as a member of parliament during the I, II, III and IV term of office in Poland after 1989. Macierewicz was also involved in the parliamentary investigation related to the PKN Orlen company privatization process. Antoni Macierewicz was a co-founder of the Christian National Union, starting from 1991 he was working as the Minister of the Internal Affairs in the government led by PM Jan Olszewski (1991 - 1992).