Piotr Naimski, Poland’s minister responsible for energy infrastructure, has been dismissed from his position, a government spokesman confirmed to PAP.
Naimski had served in the current government since 2015 and was responsible for overseeing the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline project and the LNG imports drive, as well as the nuclear energy program. In the 1990s, he was involved in government on national security matters and had been a dissident and Solidarity activist when Poland was still under communist rule in the 1970s and 1980s.
Taking to social media on Wednesday to comment on his dismissal, Naimski said in a Facebook post: “I am using this form of communication to inform you that on 20 July I was dismissed from the post of plenipotentiary of the government for strategic energy infrastructure and Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister.”
His dismissal was confirmed by the government’s press spokesman Piotr Muller and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki who wrote to thank Naimski for his efforts in government.
In his social media post, the dismissed minister revealed why he had been fired: “I was told that I am not capable of cooperating and am blocking everything.”
He also commented wryly that this was not the first time he had been dismissed from government. “This dismissal comes 30 years after the government of Jan Olszewski in which I was chief of the National Security Agency was brought down and I was dismissed by President Lech Wałęsa via the caretaker Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak,” he posted.
“The Olszewski government lasted less than six months in 1992 and was dismissed when it implemented a parliamentary motion instructing it to publish a list of informers of the communist secret police, a list which included Lech Wałęsa and other senior Polish politicians,” wrote Naimski.
In his social media post, Naimski also conveyed pride for his involvement in the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline project, saying it will be completed in October of this year. The project has made a significant contribution in ensuring Poland does not need to import any more Russian gas.
