Polish President Duda swears in new ministers after Tusk reshuffle

Polish President Andrzej Duda swore in four new ministers in Warsaw on Monday after Prime Minister Donald Tusk reshuffled his cabinet ahead of European Parliament elections next month.

Changes were being made to extremely important offices of state, Duda said.

Justifying the move on Friday, Tusk said the initial months of his government since taking office in December had been to tear down structures created by the previous national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and that now was the time to clean up.

Hanna Wróblewska, formerly director of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, is to succeed Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz as culture minister.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński is being replaced by Tomasz Simoniak, coordinator of the intelligence services, who will now fill both roles.

Jakub Jaworowski is to be the new minister for state companies, succeeding Borys Budka. The culture, interior and state companies posts are all held by members of Tusk's Civic Platform party.

A fourth minister, Krzysztof Hetman, a member of the Christian-conservative Third Way, is to be succeeded at the Ministry for Development and Technology by Krzysztof Paszyk, to date the party's parliamentary leader.

The European Parliament elections are to be held from June 6 to 9 across the 27-member bloc. They take place on June 9 in Poland.