A new bill will help investigate the Ministry and allow the firing of officials who had cooperated with communist secret services.
There are currently between 200 to 300 persons employed by the Ministry, who had cooperated with Poland’s communist regime, claims Andrzej Papierz, the director general of the Polish foreign service.
Papierz argues that the main consequence of hiring post-communist officials was what he calls replication. “Those who had influence over who was hired accepted people similar to themselves. Thus, there was a continuation of such a demoralizing standard,” he said.
Serving in the diplomatic corps, being multilingual isn’t enough. We need fighters
The main issue of Polish diplomacy was the lack of assertiveness in politics. Papierz underlines that although the Civic Platform’s diplomacy was professional, “it was taught flunkeyism and the need to satisfy everyone, just to keep their jobs.”
The director emphasizes the brutality of global politics and the need for Poland to have diplomats who will fight for its interests. “Serving in the diplomatic corps, being multilingual isn’t enough. (…) We need fighters. Most of the world’s diplomacies know this. We won’t have good diplomats if we don’t teach our staff to be convinced of their values and ideals, to be proud of Poland.”
