Prime minister's office chief Michał Dworczyk steps down

Dworczyk worked as chief of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (KPRM) since December, 2017. He informed about his resignation in a tweet on Friday. "I'd like to thank Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, PiS leadership and all KPRM employees for trust and nearly 5 years of cooperation" - he wrote.

"This has been an incredible five years. The most interesting and important experience in my professional life," Dworczyk told reporters in the Sejm.

He also assured his resignation was due to "personal reasons". "And a conviction that I wouldn't be able to work as effectively as I used to any longer in this position," he stressed.

"For the next few weeks, but certainly not for too long, I will be closing certain projects that I have been working on so far, and which need to be closed. I'm still a member of the Council of Ministers and therefore I will still function in that character for a short period of time," Dworczyk said.

Rumours regarding Dworczyk's resignation had been appearing earlier this week. They were confirmed on Thursday by chief of PiS parliamentary club Ryszard Terlecki.

Some speculated Dworczyk's departure could have been a consequence of the PiS government email scandal. Messages believed to have been leaked from Dworczyk's email account have been published online since 2021. In July of that year, opposition MPs called for PM's office chief's dismissal, but neither Dworczyk, nor PM Mateusz Morawiecki decided to take such measures.

But that, however, was not the only reason for Dworczyk's resignation. In June, 2021, the opposition requested the parliament express a vote of no confidence against the PM's office chief. As Civic Coalition MP Sławomir Nitras said at the time, the immediate cause for the move was an attempt to carry out postal voting in Poland, "which had no legal grounds whatsoever, as the Supreme Audit Office stated".

Some had been calling for Dworczyk's dismissal also back in April, 2021, when there had been problems with COVID-19 vaccinations for people 40+. At the time he was the government vaccination programme coordinator.