Sławomir Cenckiewicz has resigned as head of the opposition Conservatives (PiS)-aligned Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s National Security Bureau.
In doing. so he cited Prime Minister Donald Tusk centre-left government’s refusal to accept a court judgement that cleared the national security adviser for access to all security documents.
Cenckiewicz has served as head of the presidential National Security Bureau (BBN) since Nawrocki was elected last year but has been in the unusual position of working as the President’s national security adviser while himself not having security clearance, meaning he cannot access confidential material.
He said in a statement posted on X yesterday that he submitted his resignation on April 22 because it was not possible to do his job with such obstruction from the government.
“I made this decision with a sense of responsibility for the state, as one of its key institutions has been subjected to brutal interference and pressure,” he wrote.
On April 15, Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) dismissed appeals by the PM’s office against earlier rulings that had overturned a decision to revoke his Cenckiewicz’s security clearance. The government pronounced that the court judgment did not automatically restore access to classified information but simply meant that the President’s official’s security clearance procedure had to begin from scratch.
A government spokesman said that Cenckiewicz’s access to security information would continue to be denied until the matter was reviewed further. He did not specify a deadline for when such a review process would be completed.
In response, Cenckiewicz argued that the situation had “effectively paralysed” the functioning of the National Security Bureau (BBN) and made it impossible for him to continue in the role to which he was appointed in August 2025 by President Karol Nawrocki.
In his resignation statement, Cenckiewicz acknowledged that the court ruling had not changed his situation, claiming instead that it had led to “further harassment, persecution and investigations”.
He accused the Tusk-led coalition, which came to power in late 2023 promising to restore the rule of law, of ignoring court rulings by continuing to deny him access to classified information.
“The unprecedented anti-state vandalism of Tusk and his associates has in practice paralysed the normal functioning of the Bureau and has prevented me from carrying out my duties,” Cenckiewicz wrote.
The Polish Government says Cenckiewicz was denied security clearance because of medication he was taking and the fact that he was facing an indictment for releasing state secrets.
Cenckiewicz denied that the medication he was taking was affecting his work and reminded the government that the “secret” documents he was instrumental in revealing in 2023 were no longer valid.
The ex-national security adviser has also claimed the government was hostile to him since, as a historian he had co-authored a television series Reset, which described close co-operation of the previous Tusk administration (2007-2015) with Russia.
The President’s Chancellery yesterday said that the head of state had accepted Cenckiewicz’s resignation and that General Andrzej Kowalski, Cenckiewicz’s deputy, has been appointed acting head of the national security bureau.
The President’s press spokesman Rafał Leskiewicz echoed Cenckiewicz’s criticism, saying the government’s actions had disrupted the national security bureau’s work by depriving its chief of access to classified information.
Prime Minister Tusk and President Nawrocki have clashed repeatedly over domestic legislation with the head of state having already vetoed around 30 government legislative measures since August of last year and they have disagreed over foreign policy and defence matters. also
The latest national security differences between the two men concerned Poland accessing the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loans instrument.
The President vetoed the bill the government put forward on the matter and proposed that the money be raised via profits on Poland’s considerable gold reserves but the Tusk government has chosen to go ahead with the EU loan, by-passing the need for legislation.
