Tensions rise as Poland's govt and president clash over envoys

Poland's pro-European government on Friday again clashed with conservative President Andrzej Duda, urging the head of state to cease blocking its choice of several dozen ambassadors.

In power since a year ago, the coalition government has decided to replace numerous envoys to countries across the world -- of which a good portion were named by its nationalist predecessor.

For his part Duda -- a firm supporter of the previous administration whose presidential mandate expires in less than 300 days -- decried the recalls as "manipulations" by the current government.

"We need an ambassador in Israel," Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told the press on Friday, pointing to the broadening conflict in the Middle East.

And the day before Prime Minister Donald Tusk judged the president "extremely irresponsible" for "blocking the nomination of ambassadors in countries such as the United States, Israel, Ukraine or NATO".

"Security, Mr President!" Tusk wrote on X.

Duda hit back on the same social media platform, arguing that Warsaw's ambassadors to the United States and Ukraine could not be recalled by the government because "only the President of the Republic of Poland has the right to do so".

Under Polish law, the government bears responsibility for foreign policy.

But both the government and president have interpreted the clauses outlining their "cooperation" after their own fashion, as well as the president's formal power to appoint and dismiss ambassadors "on the proposal of the foreign affairs minister with the prime minister's approval".

The row is one of many betraying a difficult cohabitation between government and head of state in the eastern European country.

Tusk's government frequently accuses the conservative head of state of blocking important reforms, notably with regards justice and women's rights.