Poland's president swore in a new government today, ushering in a prime minister who has promised to withdraw the country's troops from Iraq and to demand more from its alliance with the United States.
Donald Tusk, 50, was sworn in at the presidential palace along with his Cabinet, an internationally minded team of former anti-communist dissidents committed to deeper capitalist reforms.
Donald Tusk
The ceremony marked the start of a four-year term expected to improve relations with the European Union after a tense two years under nationalist Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother.
The handover of power will likely have an effect on Poland's ties with the United States. Though Tusk wants to maintain the friendship with Washington, he has also vowed to bargain harder in exchange for hosting a US-built missile defense base, and to pull Poland's remaining 900 troops from Iraq next year.
Tusk said recently that he would "very consistently continue the Polish strategy of close ties with the United States" - but would also consult more closely with other European nations before making a decision on hosting the base.
Under Tusk, Poland is expected to push through a wave of pro-business economic policies — including more privatization, deregulation and speedy adoption of the euro — moves that could make the largest of the EU's eastern members a model of economic discipline in the region.
"This is a reformist government — and it's a new beginning for Poland," said Lars Christensen, senior analyst at the Danske Bank in Copenhagen.
Tusk tapped Jacek Rostowski, 56, a British-born graduate of the London School of Economics, for finance minister. Rostowski is an advocate of fast euro adoption, and was an adviser in Poland's transition to a market economy in the early 1990s.
The new foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, 44, also has deep ties to Britain, where he was stranded as an anti-communist dissident after military rule was imposed in Poland by the Communist regime in 1981.
Tusk's Civic Platform party defeated Kaczynski's Law and Justice party in Oct. 21 elections, but emerged short of a majority in parliament.
As a result, the party is forming a coalition with the small centrist party, the Polish People's Party, or PSL.
AP