Duda’s former national security advisor swaps sides and joins Trzaskowski’s presidential campaign

Jacek Siewiera, who served as the head of President Andrzej Duda’s national security office until earlier this year, has made the surprise decision to join the campaign of Rafał Trzaskowski, a fierce rival of Duda who is running to succeed him as president.

On Wednesday, Trzaskowski – who finished second in the 2020 presidential election behind Duda and next week will face Karol Nawrocki, a candidate backed by Duda, in this year’s presidential election run-off – posted a photo of himself alongside Siewiera.

“I am glad that Jacek Siewiera responded positively to my invitation to cooperate as an advisor,” wrote Trzaskowski. “In the most important matters, it is worth reaching out for the support of experts from various environments.”

“Poland’s security is too important a matter to make a revolution in it every few years. We need to pursue a wise, long-term policy. And be open to different points of view.

That announcement came shortly after Siewiera had said, in response to a question from interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak at a conference in Warsaw the pair were speaking at, that he would be willing to return to public office if invited by Trzaskowski.

“Yes, if Rafał Trzaskowski asks for help, then I am at the disposal of the president,” said Siewiera, who served as head of the National Security Bureau (BBN) – the body tasked with overseeing national security on behalf of the president – from October 2022 until February 2025.

When Siewiera, a military officer and medical doctor, submitted his resignation in January this year, Duda’s office said that he had done so in order to take up a scholarship at Oxford University.

However, after yesterday’s announcement, figures from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party, claimed that Siewiera had in fact been pushed out. This, they suggested, explained his decision to join Trzaskowski, the candidate of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), Poland’s main ruling group

PiS supported the candidacy of Duda, who was previously a member of the party, in 2015 and 2020. It is now supporting Karol Nawrocki, who will on 1 June face off in a run-off election against Trzaskowski. Last month, Duda announced his support for Nawrocki.

Speaking on Wednesday, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said that Siewiera’s decision was “simply the result of his regret after losing his position as head of the BBN”. Kaczyński added that PiS had always been “sceptical” about Siewiera.

Meanwhile, Marcin Przydacz, a PiS MP and former advisor to Duda, likewise told broadcaster RMF that Duda had “made the decision” to remove Siewiera and that the public statements about an Oxford scholarship were just a pretext.

Przydacz said that the reason for Siewiera being dismissed was that he had been “drifting towards liberal views” and “getting closer to the other side of the political barricade in Poland”.

Figures from Trzaskowski’s Civic Coalition (KO) group, however, welcomed the news, with Witold Zembaczyński, saying that it shows that Trzaskowski wants to unite Poles and not divide them while also enhancing the country’s security by ensuring continuity.

Main image credit: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP