WARSAW, Poland — Waldemar Pawlak, deputy prime minister and economy minister in Poland's center-right coalition government, is resigning from both positions.
Pawlak said Monday he will submit his resignation to Prime Minister Donald Tusk later in the day, two days after he lost his position as leader of the Polish People’s Party, a farmers’ party that is the junior partner in Tusk’s five-year-old government. Pawlak was unseated at a party congress by rival Janusz Piechocinski.
Piechocinski said he doesn’t want a government post himself but that the party will stay in government, meaning the coalition led by Tusk’s pro-market Civic Platform party is expected to survive.
However, it does complicate governance for Tusk when he is already facing a slowing economy and mounting criticism of his policies.
