WARSAW (Reuters) - The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has no plans to become the country's prime minister, he told Gazeta Polska daily, rebuffing speculation that he might step into the top government job.
The speculation revived when Prime Minister Beata Szydlo announced planned changes in the government in September. In the end, she dismissed Finance Minister Pawel Szalamacha and replaced him with Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who also serves as economy minister.
"(The option of changing the prime minister) was not seriously taken into account, as I would have been the only candidate and I do not have such plans," said Kaczynski, who earlier this year described the Szydlo government as an "experiment".
He added that he backed the decision to grant Morawiecki more tools to carry out his plan to boost the economy.
"A huge change in the economic sphere is ahead of us. Thanks to the recent changes in the government it is now entering the phase of initial implementation. If it succeeds (...) it will speed up economic growth by around 1 percent," said Kaczynski, who exerts huge influence from behind the scenes.
Morawiecki's plan is to stimulate Polish capital and make it play a significant role in the economy. He also wants to boost innovations and exports, but critics say his plans are too general.