President clashes with Foreign Minister

Michał Kamiński, a presidential minister, announced that Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski had ignored an official invitation from the President and failed to show up for a meeting about the government's recent moves on the foreign front. Waving a fax sheet to prove Sikorski informed the President he could not make the meeting only after it was supposed to have begun, Kamiński said the President's Chancellery will ask the Constitutional Court to clarify the responsibilities of the head of state in foreign and defense policy. Sikorski's spokesman explained the Foreign Minister had to attend a cabinet meeting and, after consultation with the Prime Minister, in his letter politely asked the President to name an alternative date. Meanwhile, Sejm speaker Bronisław Komorwski said in a radio interview the new government will stick to the "spirit of the constitution" which he said clearly reserved chief responsibility over foreign policy for the government. Also yesterday, President Kaczyński appointed Anna Fotyga, the previous Foreign Minister, as the head of his Chancellery. Fotyga stressed the Chancellery would not become an alternative source of foreign policy, though some of her comments seemed to imply otherwise. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 5; Rzeczpospolita, p. A4-A5). R.M.