POLAND: The Government Reshuffle & more – 24th July 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 24th of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off with internal affairs. On Wednesday, the 23rd, Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister, announced a government reshuffle to strengthen his team and improve its performance after his party lost the presidential election.

Some key changes include promoting Radosław Sikorski, the Foreign Minister, to Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, and giving Andrzej Domański, the Finance Minister, extra powers to oversee the entire economy. Tomasz Siemoniak moved from Interior Minister to coordinate special services and tackle illegal migration.

Tusk’s goal is to regain public trust and have the government running smoothly before the next parliamentary elections in twenty twenty-seven.

On the immigration side, on Saturday the 19th, ultra-conservative Confederation party groups held anti-immigration protests in over eighty Polish cities, with around 3,000 people attending the largest rally in Katowice, in southern Poland, and several hundred participants in other cities. Protesters called to close borders with Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Slovakia and even allow soldiers to shoot illegal border crossers.

Meanwhile, counter-protests supporting refugees took place in different cities, including Warsaw.

Poland’s Justice and Interior Ministers warned the rallies could fuel hate and violence and urged politicians to stop exploiting immigration for political gain.

Experts say racism is rising, even though most immigrants follow the law and help the economy.

Following the protests, on Monday the 21st, Poland’s Roma community asked PM Tusk to say that hate and racism won’t be tolerated, and urged him to declare that the government will protect everyone from hate crimes.

Karol Hoang, a leader of Poland’s Vietnamese community, also warned against rising anti-immigrant sentiment, saying it threatens long-established migrants who are part of Polish society. Hoang called for better integration policies and said true patriotism means building respect and shared futures.

Other groups, including university leaders, said hate speech could put foreign students and staff in danger.

Adam Szłapka, the Polish government spokesman, criticized Saturday’s protests, calling them a hate-driven political show. He said police will check videos and report anything illegal, and stressed that the borders and visa system are under control.

Speaking of immigration, on Friday, the 19th, interior ministers from Poland, Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic, France, and Austria met at Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain, to talk about the growing challenges of illegal migration and border control.

Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s Interior Minister, spoke about the temporary border checks Poland recently brought back with Germany and Lithuania, saying that Poland is serious about fighting illegal migration and that EU members should work together to stop it.

He also talked about Poland’s major investments in fences and surveillance along the Belarus border and thanked the EU for funding.

On that note about security, on Thursday, the 17th, Poland’s Senate approved a plan to withdraw from the nineteen ninety-seven Ottawa Convention, which bans anti-personnel landmines because they often harm civilians not just during conflicts but long afterward.

This move comes as Poland and its neighbors feel more threatened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, especially since Russia has been using banned mines there.

Polish officials say today’s mines are smarter and can be turned off remotely to keep civilians safe. Poland also wants to restart domestic mine production and train people to clear them safely.

Other countries like Finland and Lithuania also plan to leave the treaty due to the same security concerns.

Also on Thursday, Poland officially confirmed it won’t send its ambassador back to Hungary and put Jacek Śladewski, an experienced diplomat, in charge of the embassy.

Poland called back Sebastian Kęciek, the former Ambassador to Hungary, in December after Hungary gave asylum to Marcin Romanowski, a former Polish deputy justice minister facing corruption charges.

This move is a step back in relations between the two countries. Hungary called it unfortunate but said they’re still open to talks and hope things get better.

In other news, on Wednesday, the 23rd, Radosław Sikorski met with Marta Kos, the EU Commissioner, in Warsaw to talk about plans for a new media hub in the city, the war in Ukraine, and Moldova’s progress toward joining the EU.

Kos said that Russia spreads lies and that the EU plans to boost funding for independent media in non-democratic countries like Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, starting in twenty twenty-eight.

Poland also wants the EU to support a Warsaw-based media platform with an international team.

In an update to a story from a previous show, on Monday, the 21st, a few weeks after the government accepted the presidential election results as fair, Joanna Staniszkis, the former Warsaw city councilor from the Civic Coalition, and Krzysztof Kontek, a statistical analyst, submitted their complaint to the European Court of Human Rights over the handling of Poland’s presidential election.

They say the government mishandled tens of thousands of complaints from citizens and want 117 million dollars in compensation.

They believe the election wasn’t fully fair, pointing to biased election commissions and a suspicious tool called the Matecki app, an unauthorized system promoted by the Law and Justice party to check voter certificates which may have blocked some voters.

Next up, new policies. On Friday, the 18th, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, the Marshal of the Senate of Poland, announced plans at the Polonia Camp twenty twenty-five in Warsaw to create a Senate team to help Poles abroad return and settle in the country.

She also wants to start a youth council in the Senate, allowing younger Poles around the world to have a say in decisions such as education, employment, and cultural programs. She stressed that the government wants to maintain strong ties with the Polish diaspora of around twenty million people worldwide and encouraged them to return to Poland.

The Polonia Camp twenty twenty-five brought together over 1,000 young people with Polish roots from forty-six countries for workshops, talks, and panels featuring well-known figures from politics, culture, and sports.

On Monday, the 21st, Rafał Modrzewski, the CEO of Iceye, the Finnish-Polish company that designs, builds, and operates satellites specialized in Earth observation, confirmed that Poland is in advanced talks to buy a stake in the company, which is known for tracking Russian troop movements during the Ukraine war.

Iceye was founded in twenty fourteen and focused on radar imaging for Arctic shipping but shifted to military applications after Russia invaded Ukraine in twenty twenty-two. The company has raised 500 million dollars from investors so far and is now valued at over one billion dollars.

Modrzewski said they plan to make way more satellites soon to keep up with growing demand as Europe boosts defense spending.

On a sad note, on Sunday, the 20th, Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski, the Chief Sanitary Inspector, confirmed that an elderly woman in Stargard, northwestern Poland, caught cholera marking the first local case in six years.

Cholera is a fast-spreading bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration.

Grzesiowski said neither the woman nor anyone around her had left the country, which is unusual, since cholera cases in Poland usually come from people returning from abroad. Doctors quarantined her along with over twenty more people she had been in contact with.

Poland last dealt with a cholera case in twenty nineteen, when an Indian sailor brought it in after docking in the port city of Świnoujście, in northwestern Poland.

On the following day, on Monday, the 21st, Polish labor authorities launched inspections at Amazon warehouses nationwide after the sudden death of a forty-eight-year-old employee in Sosnowiec city, in southern Poland.

This came after Włodzimierz Czarzasty, the Deputy Speaker, raised broader concerns about working conditions at Amazon facilities in Poland. Warehouse workers have long complained about exhausting shifts, saying they walk up to thirty kilometers, eighteen miles, a day picking, packing, and moving goods.

However, Amazon said it prioritizes safety and provides round-the-clock medical care.

Authorities plan to investigate working hours and overall labor practices.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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