Tusk reportedly set to countersign four NBP board nominations before 4 November

Reported shift in the government's stance

Radio ESKA reported that Prime Minister Donald Tusk will countersign presidential decrees appointing four people to the management board of the National Bank of Poland (NBP). According to the station, the change followed a meeting on 2 November at the NBP headquarters between Finance Minister Andrzej Domański and NBP governor Adam Glapiński, during which the minister said the premier would sign. The four nominees are Marta Kightley, Ludwik Kotecki, Przemysław Litwiniuk and Marcin Zarzecki. Polsat News reported the same on the basis of unofficial information and said it hoped confirmation would come at the National Security Council session on Tuesday, 3 November. In late October, government spokesman Adam Szłapka had said, according to Rzeczpospolita, that the premier had not yet made a decision.

Radio ESKA links the reversal to Tusk's reluctance to open another political front after the turmoil around the Constitutional Tribunal. The sources also point to the rating review of Poland by S&P, scheduled for 6 November, as a further factor. Nothing has been officially confirmed yet, and the account rests on unofficial reporting.

How the nominations stalled

The president appoints NBP board members on the governor's motion, but the decrees take effect only with the premier's countersignature. The president issued decrees naming the four nominees in February. In May, Tusk returned the requests without his signature. In October the NBP again asked the president, who issued fresh decrees, and those have since been waiting for the premier's signature. Earlier, in March, the terms of two board members ended, including that of first deputy governor Marta Kightley, which left the board with only one deputy governor although the law provides for two.

A board below the legal minimum

Adam Lipiński's term as deputy governor ends on 4 November, a Wednesday. Afterwards the board would have five members, below the six to eight the NBP Act requires, not counting the governor. Kotecki was proposed for a seat vacated in March and Litwiniuk to replace Lipiński. According to the articles, Marcin Zarzecki would join from January 2027 in place of Marta Gajęcka, whose term ends then. According to money.pl, Glapiński has taken direct oversight of departments previously under Lipiński, which one outlet read as preparation for a decision-making deadlock.

Expert warning

Małgorzata Zaleska, who sat on the NBP board from 2009 to 2015 after being appointed by President Lech Kaczyński, now directs the Banking Institute at SGH. Speaking to Rzeczpospolita, she warned that the board's failure to meet the statutory minimum could matter during difficult decisions, especially amid high geopolitical risk.

“Any doubts, whether justified or not, about the legality of central bank resolutions are highly undesirable.”

She added that breaching the statutory board size does not help the bank's stability and complicates succession planning for the governor and other members.

Open questions

The articles also describe a separate dispute over whether Glapiński should be brought before the State Tribunal. naTemat wrote that the Sejm could suspend him from his duties. The next scheduled event in the sources is the S&P rating review of Poland, due on 6 November.