Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told reporters in parliament that he initially "thought the president's staff had been urging ambassadors to resign, but it later "turned out that the president himself was doing it."
Jakub Kumoch, Poland's envoy to China, and Paweł Soloch, its ambassador to Romania, resigned over the weekend amid an intensifying standoff over the constitutional court in Warsaw.
"That is not the president’s role, forcing Polish ambassadors to resign," Sikorski said.
Kumoch and Soloch, both appointed by former President Andrzej Duda, said their resignations were linked to the dispute surrounding Poland's Constitutional Tribunal.
Sikorski told reporters that pressure was also "being exerted" on candidates for future ambassadorial posts.
Later in the day, Polish foreign ministry spokesman Maciej Wewiór said on X that Poland's ambassador to the United Nations, Krzysztof Szczerski, had asked Sikorski to "shorten his diplomatic mission."
He added that Sikorski "acceded to this request" and that Szczerski would stop being Poland's UN envoy "later this month."
President 'cannot choose ambassadors'
Sikorski also said on Monday that Nawrocki's largely "ceremonial responsibilities" did not give him the power to govern the country.
"The president can, at his own discretion, give someone a state decoration, grant someone Polish citizenship or pardon someone, but he cannot choose judges and he cannot choose ambassadors," Sikorski said.
Sikorski said Nawrocki should perform his constitutional duties, including swearing in judges elected by parliament, and rejected calls for a constitutional reset.
"No reset is needed," he said.
President 'is not the Sun King'
Sikorski accused Nawrocki of seeking to turn Poland into a "presidential republic" without formally changing the constitution by refusing to swear in judges elected by parliament and by using what he described as physical pressure.
"That cannot be accepted," Sikorski said. "We will defend the constitution, in which the president has a representative role and is not the head of the executive branch."
Sikorski also warned the presidential administration against attempting to enter public buildings by force.
"The president in Poland is not the Sun King. He has powers defined by the constitution,” Sikorski said.
Sikorski was also asked about Nawrocki's interrupted trip to Senegal. He questioned why the president had abandoned the visit and returned to Warsaw "only to force his way into the Constitutional Tribunal building in the middle of the night."
The crisis at the constitutional court flared up after Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, a judge elected by the current parliamentary majority, said on Friday she had taken charge of the constitutional court and initiated disciplinary proceedings against the court's former head Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański, suspending them for one month.
Tensions and protests subsequently heated up outside the court, prompting a police deployment.
'I have an allergy to the smell of Russian foot wraps'
Sikorski also criticised Nawrocki for holding consultations at the presidential palace on Saturday with politicians from some parliamentary groups and circles, including far-right politicians Grzegorz Braun and Włodzimierz Skalik of the anti-EU, pro-Russian Confederation of the Polish Crown party.
Asked about the absence of politicians from his Civic Coalition (KO) party at the meeting, Sikorski said he was more surprised by those who had attended.
"I have an allergy to the smell of Russian foot wraps," Sikorski said, referring to Braun's recent call for a return to buying Russian oil and gas and his statement that he loved "the smell of Russian gas in the morning."
Braun, who is a member of European Parliament, has had his immunity lifted to face a slew of charges including antisemitism, Holocaust denial and attacks in parliament.
"I am very surprised that Mr. President has gone so far," Sikorski said, questioning why Braun had been invited to talks and received at the presidential palace.
Sikorski later wrote on X that Poland was witnessing an "unprecedented scale of cooperation online" between "Russian propagandists and the global far right."
"This is clearly an alliance. Or at least cooperation," he wrote. "It should make all of us think about who wants to stir things up in Poland and who benefits from it."
On Saturday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in an address to the nation that "a democratic state must be strong and capable of upholding justice."
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Source: IAR/PAP