Polish PM reshuffles cabinet to boost economy

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday reshuffled the cabinet, replacing seven ministers and merging two ministries in the government, in a bid to boost the country's sluggish economy. According to media reports, Mateusz Szczurek will replace Jacek Rostowski as the finance minister, Rafal Trzaskowski will take over the role of administration and digitisation minister from Michal Boni. Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, minister of environmental protection will become a new minister of science and higher education, thus replacing Barbara Kudrycka. Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska will replace Krystyna Szumilas as the education minister. Sports Minister Joanna Mucha will be replaced by Andrzej Biernat and Environment Minister Marcin Korolec by Maciej Grabowski. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Regional Development will be merged into the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development and headed by Elzbieta Bienkowska, the current regional development minister, who was also named a new deputy PM. The new ministers will be sworn in on Nov. 27 and Dec. 3 this year. The first cabinet meeting in the new line-up will be held on Dec. 4. According to the latest CBOS pollster survey on a representative random sample of 990 Poles from Nov. 7 to 14, the government's supporting rate grew by 3 percentage points to 23 percent in November.