Nawrocki appoints four NBP board members after Tusk countersigns decisions

Four appointments signed after a long standoff

President Karol Nawrocki has appointed four people to the management board of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), his spokesman Rafał Leśkiewicz announced on X on Friday, 6 November. Marta Kightley was named a board member and first deputy president of the bank. Przemysław Litwiniuk becomes a board member and vice president, while Ludwik Kotecki joins the board as a member. Marcin Zarzecki's appointment takes effect on 2 January 2027, and the presidential decision was signed on 5 November 2026.

How the standoff unfolded

The appointments end a dispute that began in May, when Prime Minister Donald Tusk returned the president's decisions on Kightley and Kotecki without countersignature. Under the constitution, most presidential acts need the prime minister's countersignature, and board appointments are among them. The president sent the decisions back in October, this time including Litwiniuk and Zarzecki, who both sit on the Monetary Policy Council (RPP). According to wpolityce.pl, Kotecki and Litwiniuk were put forward by parties in the current coalition, while the president nominated Zarzecki. Tusk countersigned the decisions on Tuesday, 3 November, and announced this before a cabinet meeting, saying:

“There was a risk of a deadlock: no board, no possibility for the NBP to operate, and that is why I decided to take this step.”

Tusk added that someone in the country had to consider how to stabilise the situation and the Polish złoty.

Council seats and career backgrounds

Kightley previously served as first deputy president after her appointment on 8 March 2020, and her six-year term ended in March 2026. She graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), where she also earned her doctorate in 2006, and from 2007 to 2010 she headed the political-economic department at the Polish Embassy in Seoul. Kotecki, a member of the RPP since 12 January 2022, resigned from the council because of his NBP appointment, and Litwiniuk is also leaving it. Kotecki's earlier career includes leadership posts at the Ministry of Finance from 2000 and a 2015 to 2016 role as deputy executive director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. Wpolityce.pl notes that the RPP should have 10 members including the NBP president, so the vacancies must now be filled.

Pressure over the NBP governor

Wpolityce.pl reports that the Prime Minister still intends to remove NBP governor Adam Glapiński, and that politicians of the ruling camp are pushing a Sejm resolution to bring him before the State Tribunal over decisions the outlet says did not breach the law. On 4 November 2026, the NBP board and the RPP published statements on the central bank's independence, backing the governor against what they called further political pressure. Tusk said the NBP itself must be protected from unnecessary shocks, regardless of the Sejm proceedings concerning Glapiński. Under the law, the board consists of the president and six to eight members, including two vice presidents, serving six-year terms, with a limit of two consecutive terms. Board members are appointed by the president on the motion of the NBP governor.