Long-term foreign politician Sikorski, Oxford Graduate, Annoyed by Russia’s UN Ambassador

Sikorski has once again entered Polish politics with the advent of the new government. Radosław Sikorski, the Russian UN ambassador, meticulously noted down the speech and is now the foreign minister in Poland’s new government. This government rose to power after the Law and Justice party (PiS) was defeated in the elections last fall by the pro-EU coalition.

Having served as a foreign minister previously, Sikorski, who was a part of the 2007–2014 board, is a seasoned foreign politician. With Tusk’s return to power, Sikorski moved back to the position of foreign minister from his MEP position in Brussels.

Contrary to the recent success of Europe’s right-wing populists, the loss of the right party was an anomaly. Sikorski is now working to rebuild relationships with the European Union that were weakened during PiS’s rule mainly due to various violations of law.

Following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Poland’s relations with the EU had a chance to improve slightly when Poland took in Ukrainian refugees and supported the EU’s sanctions policy, unlike Hungary. Despite this, the EU froze the 140 billion euros intended for Poland EU subsidies until last week and is now releasing them, given that the new government has started repairing the damage caused by its predecessor.

Having spent his youth in Poland under Soviet rule, Sikorski, now 61, learnt about the stark contradiction between what he heard at home and what was taught at school through Western radio stations. In 1980, Sikorski joined the anti-communist Solidarity movement that was born in Poland. Following the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981, he moved to Britain for work and received political asylum there.

Sikorski studied at the prestigious University of Oxford, where he eventually joined the Bullingdon Club, a private association for male students only. The club has seen several future members of the British elite, including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and David Cameron. Sikorski knows Johnson particularly well.

In a BBC interview last fall, Sikorski remarked that he had noticed the early signs of Britain’s departure from the EU, i.e., Brexit, which was evident in the strong anti-EU sentiment of future conservative politicians. He expressed his fear that Poland could follow the same path and exit the EU due to the influence of a small ruling party faction.

Sikorski worked as a journalist in the late 1980s for British newspapers The Spectator and The Observer. After the fall of the Communist Party, he returned to Poland and transitioned from journalism to politics. He became a minister for the first time in 1992 when he was appointed deputy defense minister at 29.

Since 1992, Sikorski has been married to American journalist and author Anne Applebaum. In her 2020 book, Twilight of Democracy, Applebaum discusses how many of the couple’s Polish friends transitioned from being liberals in the 1990s to supporters of right-wing populist leaders two decades later.

Sikorski has served as Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs in multiple Polish governments. Prior to his tenure in the EU Parliament, he was the Speaker of the Polish Parliament but had to resign due to a wiretapping scandal in Poland. He did not run in the 2015 elections where Law and Justice won the majority, but he was elected to the EU Parliament in 2019.