As expected, the head of Poland’s national-conservative ruling party PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has resigned from his post as Deputy Prime Minister. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and President Andrzej Duda have already accepted a corresponding request, Kaczynski told the PAP news agency on Tuesday. “At this moment I am no longer in government.”

In the future, he wants to concentrate on the work in the party, which needs to regain strength, said Kaczynski with a view to the upcoming parliamentary elections in autumn 2023.

Two weeks ago, a government spokesman announced Kaczynski’s imminent departure from the cabinet. The 73-year-old has been Deputy Prime Minister since October 2020 and has since coordinated the areas of internal security and defense. Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak will now assume this function, Kaczynski announced.

The PiS co-founder was Prime Minister of Poland from 2006 to 2007. Since his party took power again in 2015, he has been considered an important puller in Polish politics – whether with or without government office.