Political Struggle in Poland Disrupts Recruitment of Young Officers to Secret Services

136 future employees of Poland’s Internal Security Agency and Foreign Intelligence Service did not receive their first officer ranks, which were scheduled to be awarded on November 7. Slawa media outlet reported on this.

On the day of the planned event, Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted a video on X announcing that the ceremony had been called off.

According to him, before each November 11 — Poland’s Independence Day — the relevant documents are submitted to the President’s Office for approval of rank assignments for secret service officers.

However, President Karol Nawrocki did not sign the decree this time. Tusk called it “a continuation of his war with the government,” ending the video with: “To be president, it is not enough to win an election.”

In response, Nawrocki released his own statement, beginning with: “To be Prime Minister, it is not enough to post on X. You also need to be able to govern and put the state above party interests.”

The President said that the government canceled four scheduled meetings with the heads of the security services.

He claimed that those meetings were where key national security issues were supposed to be discussed and decisions on officer promotions made. Nawrocki noted that “state interests were replaced by party interests.”

Members of the government and representatives of the president joined the public dispute.

Tomasz Siemoniak, the Minister, Member of the Council of Ministers, Coordinator of Special Services, stated that the President’s claim of lacking information was false: “He, like his predecessors, receives all relevant information — as do authorized officials of his Chancellery.”

Siemoniak added that cooperation between the President and the security services is governed by official procedures that do not require personal meetings with agency heads. According to him, the President’s representatives have never been denied access to information.

He also published a photo of a document fragment from the President’s Office to show that the requested “personal meeting” concerned internal security threats, not officer promotions.