MFA: Jarosław Lindenberg appointed new undersecretary of state

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau on Tuesday (Sept. 12) appointed Jarosław Lindenberg as the new undersecretary of state.

"The responsibilities of the Undersecretary of State include Consular and Parliamentary Affairs, Polish Community Abroad, as well as Public and Cultural Diplomacy," the ministry said in a statement.

According to a biographic entry at the MFA website, Lindenberg is a graduate of master and doctoral studies from the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology of at the University of Warsaw.

"Since October 1990 employed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2002 till 2021 held the foreign service rank of titular ambassador. Polish ambassador to Latvia—also accredited to Estonia—(1991–1996), Bulgaria (1998–2003), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018–2023), and chargé d’affaires a.i. in Montenegro (2007–2011). He worked at the MFA as Deputy Director of the Cabinet of Minister (1991), Director of the Minister’s Office (2006–2007)" - we read.

"In 2012–2018, Lindenberg was MFA’s Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Protocol (in charge of privileges, immunities, and diplomatic immovables). His outstanding achievements in the foreign service include complete restoration of three Polish diplomatic posts—the embassies in Riga (1991), Tallinn (1991), and Podgorica (2007), and as Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Protocol he stressed the implementation of procedures to make foreign diplomats comply with the Polish law (labour law regarding missions’ local staff and diplomats’ household employees, as well as the traffic code)" - the MFA added.

"From the late 1970s until the end of the 1980s he cooperated with the democratic opposition, and was therefore interned during the martial law. The Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression granted him the status of a person repressed on political grounds."

In the past, Lindenberg occasionally practised journalism and writing fiction. The MFA said he "co-authored the novels Man of Blood and Bone (MIGO, 1990) and How Did the Dinosaurs Die Out, or the Secret of the Amber Room. A Sensation Thriller for the Intellectually Challenged (Liberum Verbum, 2018), and a screenplay for Konrad Szołajski’s movie Man of... (1993)".

The MFA also said Lindenberg speaks English, French, Bulgarian, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian.

The new undersecretary of state was awarded Latvian Commander’s Cross of the Order of the Three Stars (1996), Bulgarian Order of Stara Planina I class (2004), as well as the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity (2012), the Medal of the Centenary of Regained Independence (2023), and the honorary badge Meritorious Activist of Culture (2001) for his engagement in the underground publishing.

On August 31, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki dismissed Piotr Wawrzyk as a secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the MFA, the reason for that decision was "a lack of satisfatory cooperation".