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To be the Prime Minister is a great honour, but also a great responsibility. According toaccording toAccording to the Constitution the Prime Minister is only the fourth person in the state (after the President and the Marshals of the Sejm and the Senate), but in practice almost all the executive power lies in his hands. The quality of life of millions of people depends on the decisions made by the head of government. As head of government the Prime Minister has a number of competences. Solve the exercise and find out, how much you know about his responsibilities.

Follow the timeline to find out, how many Prime Ministers there was in the Third Republic of Poland, and when their term of office was.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki

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Fotografia czarno-biała przedstawiająca Tadeusza Mazowieckiego na tle tłumu ludzi

His opponents said he was “slow as a turtle”, his supporters asked “who is the hawk, then?”. He did not expect to become the Prime Minister. His mission to create the cabinetto create the cabinetto create the cabinet was not an easy one – he had to take into considerationto take into considerationto take into consideration not only the interests of the “Solidarity” movement, which he represented, but also the communists, who were also in the Sejm. He faintedto faintfainted during his exposé, but when he returned to the podium to continue he joked “I was in the same state as the Polish economy, but I have recovered now, and I hope the Polish economy will recover, too!”. His government will be remembered forto be remembered forbe remembered for carrying out difficult but necessary reforms known as the Balcerowicz plan, which allowed to control hyperinflationhyperinflationhyperinflation, begin restructuring of the economy and privatization. Mazowiecki was criticized for not taking enough care of the cost of the transformation, especially for the poorest. At the same time it was during his time in the office, when unemployment benefits were introduced, and the Minister of LabourMinister of LabourMinister of Labour, Jacek Kuroń, was an important figure in his cabinet. His soup – kuroniówka – became history. Another reason to criticize Mazowiecki were the communists in his government. They took the state power ministries (Ministry of Internal AffairsMinistry of Internal AffairsMinistry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of DefenceMinistry of DefenceMinistry of Defence), which allowed them to dispose of a lot of evidence of the criminal activity of the communist regime. On 26, November 1990 Mazowiecki resigned. Andrzej Brzeziecki wrote a biography of Tadeusz Mazowiecki in 2015. This is what he thinks about the Prime Minister: “There are no perfect biographies. The fate of Tadeusz Mazowiecki proves, that one can make mistakes as a young person, but then grow, and with all your political activity serve your country. The Prime Minister was definitely a true statesman. Poland was lucky to have a man like that.” Tadeusz Mazowiecki died in 2013. On the day of his funeral a national day of mourning was observed.

Keywords

executive power, head of government, the cabinet, exposé, state power ministries, the Council of Ministers

Glossary