On Thursday, April 23, 2026, Secretary of State and Head of the National Security Bureau Prof. Sławomir Cenckiewicz announced that he had tendered his resignation to the President of the Republic of Poland and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Karol Nawrocki. He will be succeeded by Gen. Andrzej Kowalski.
Photo: Polish President Karol Nawrocki via X
A statement was issued via social media, with the full text as follows:
Statement!!!
In view of the unlawful actions of Donald Tusk’s government, which does not respect final court judgments and groundlessly deprives me of the right to access classified information, on April 22, 2026, I tendered my resignation to President Karol Nawrocki from the position of Secretary of State and Head of the National Security Bureau.
From now on, I will support the President in an entirely different role. I give my support to my successor, Gen. Andrzej Kowalski, and to all my colleagues at the BBN; I thank them and wish them success.
I have thought through my decision and made it out of responsibility for the state, one of whose important offices — the National Security Bureau — has been subjected to brutal interference and pressure from Donald Tusk’s government. Tusk and his associates’ unprecedented anti-state vandalism has, in practice, paralyzed the normal functioning of the BBN, while making it impossible for me to perform the duties entrusted to me by the President of the Republic of Poland on August 7, 2025.
The ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court of April 15 this year, which finally exposed the unlawfulness of the government’s and the SKW’s actions against me over the past two years, changed nothing in this regard and even intensified further harassment, persecution, and investigations. After nearly two years of my fight before the courts, despite their defeat before the Supreme Administrative Court, Tusk’s team is trying to subject me once again to the same lawlessness, with the same Jarosław Stróżyk from the WSI acting as the verifier of my access to classified information — an old/new vetting procedure, whose outcome has already been prejudged by an ORMO functionary on X; a second revocation of security clearance; an appeal against the SKW decision to Tusk; a complaint against the decision to the Provincial Administrative Court and possibly to the Supreme Administrative Court.
But a won war settles who is right — and the right is ultimately on my side!
My knowledge of the role of Prime Minister Tusk and his associates in the process of subordinating Poland to the Russian Federation in 2007-2014, the related content of the report of the State Commission for the Investigation of Russian Influences on the Internal Security of the Republic of Poland in 2007-2022, my participation in the liquidation of the Military Information Services, or even the exposure of Lech Wałęsa as a dangerous Security Service agent under the pseudonym “Bolek” — these are the real reasons for the repression I have faced since December 13, 2023.
One government representative, already after the Supreme Administrative Court ruling, put it directly: “They will never forgive you for this, and they will never — even if the courts decide otherwise — grant you clearance.”
To this dull and blind hatred of Tusk’s team, I respond with the words of the great Ignacy Matuszewski, and like him, “I am proud that I stood by my opinion against all dignitaries and authorities. I am proud that today the hatred of ‘yesterday’ still pursues me for it.”
I therefore do not intend to leave the path of struggle. All the more so, I am not leaving in the belief that everything will now suddenly improve and that Tusk’s government will begin to cooperate with the President of the Republic of Poland and the BBN subordinate to him. I have no illusions that the goal of the bad people governing Poland is to delegitimize the President, limit his powers, and ultimately destroy and “remove” the presidency of Karol Nawrocki. I know very well — and after eight months of work at the BBN, even more so — who Donald Tusk, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Radosław Sikorski, Tomasz Siemoniak, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, and Waldemar Żurek are, what intentions guide them, and how much they have harmed Poland for years.
Any cooperation with them, even removing security and defense matters from political conflict, is impossible. Where we call for a new National Security Strategy and an update of the entire hierarchy of planning and strategic documents for wartime, and prepare ready-made provisions and solutions, on the government side we encounter incomprehension, the dragging out of discussions, or simple reluctance. Where we want real modernization and development of the armed forces, the government ideologizes procurement and credit policy, deceiving public opinion while spouting nonsense about European defense capabilities. Where we care for Poland’s relations with America — without which there is no NATO and no strengthening of allied potential in Poland — the government promotes anti-Americanism, creates the illusion of German and French “domes” and “nuclear umbrellas” over Poland, and considers how to replace the future presence of U.S. troops in Poland with a European, or German, corps. Where we are working on the future professionalization and new structure of the special services, they promote within the services friends of the FSB, authors of leaks to the media from vetting proceedings, attorneys for 130-year-olds reclaiming Warsaw tenement houses, haters from the WSI, communists, and ORMO members, reducing a huge part of the services’ efforts to an internal fight against the opposition and the President of the Republic of Poland.
The Bureau which I had the honor to lead saw through these harmful plans well. The reality of Poland’s destruction is not an illusion, nor is it political rhetoric in a dispute with opponents. It is the truth, which demands strength, unity, courage, and struggle. It demands an adequate response, not illusions!
In leaving my ministerial post, I only want to free the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland from the constant pressure and interference of which — as a public enemy of the Tusk, Sikorski, and Kosiniak-Kamysz government — I was and remain the cause. I built a new structure for the Bureau, hired many excellent specialists, tightened the promotion system in the army and services so that people of the communist-era regime, former friends of the USSR/Russia/FSB, and people involved in persecuting the opposition after December 13, 2023, would not be promoted or decorated by the President of the Republic of Poland, developed a network of international contacts, and brought several projects to completion. The first draft laws are ready, the harmful European SAFE has been vetoed, and the annex concerning the WSI is ready for publication. As a result, despite attempts by the government to isolate us from the flow of information, the President has at his disposal a professional instrument for monitoring the area of national and international security. I believe nothing will change in this regard — except that it will be even better, even more professional.
Today, however, the most important thing is a change of government. I will therefore not give up the fight to preserve democracy and the rule of law in Poland. What until now — because of the dignity of the office I held — prevented me from openly opposing the boundless villainy that is destroying Poland today, from now on no longer constrains me. I am returning not only to the role of a researcher of the past and academic lecturer, but above all to that of a publicist and political commentator.
Tusk and his raiding parties from the SB, LWP, WSW, FSB, and WSI therefore have no reason to celebrate! In my new role, I will hold the current anti-state vandalism of the government to account even more strongly, doing everything to ensure that Prof. Przemysław Czarnek’s mission succeeds. I have knowledge and experience gained from the offices I have held and from the 2024/2025 election campaign, which I wish to pass on to Prof. Czarnek as a candidate for Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. The success of this difficult mission is our raison d’état!
And besides, let Mateusz Morawiecki, whom I value, “fish” in the center; let Civic Coalition lose the elections; let “New ZSL” in its current form fall below the electoral threshold; let the President of the Republic of Poland take the Senate Bloc under his patronage; and let the right build a future coalition and consequently form a PiS… and Confederation government.
Poland needs the unity of patriots! Poland needs a national government! Poland needs a New State!
Sławomir Cenckiewicz
Warsaw, April 23, 2026
Prof. Sławomir Cenckiewicz had served as Secretary of State and Head of the National Security Bureau since August 7, 2025, when he replaced Dariusz Łukowski.
UPDATE
Minister, member of the Council of Ministers, and coordinator of the special services Tomasz Siemoniak:
Mr. Cenckiewicz’s hysterical statement on resigning as head of the National Security Bureau clearly confirms why this person should never have held this position or had access to state secrets. We are counting on cooperation with Gen. Kowalski as acting head of the National Security Bureau. By actually representing the BBN in various government bodies, he has shown that even with major differences of opinion, it is possible to act with seriousness and calm within the framework of the applicable regulations.
Histeryczne oświadczenie pana Cenckiewicza o rezygnacji z funkcji szefa BBN wyraźnie potwierdza, dlaczego ta osoba nie powinna nigdy sprawować tej funkcji ani mieć dostępu do tajemnic państwowych. Liczymy na współpracę z gen. Kowalskim jako p.o. szefa BBN, który reprezentując…
— Tomasz Siemoniak (@TomaszSiemoniak) April 23, 2026
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz:
We are beginning a new stage of cooperation with the National Security Bureau. I am counting on less emotion and more cooperation for the security of our country. I am open to this cooperation being substantive and leading to the strengthening of Poland’s power and resilience.
Zaczynamy nowy etap współpracy z Biurem Bezpieczeństwa Narodowego. Liczę na mniej emocji i więcej współpracy na rzecz bezpieczeństwa naszego kraju.
Jestem otwarty, by ta współpraca była merytoryczna i prowadziła do wzmacniania siły i odporności Polski! 🇵🇱
— Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (@KosiniakKamysz) April 23, 2026