WARSAW: Poland’s rightwing government said Wednesday that it would push ahead with plans to merge the country’s new World War II museum with another one that is in the works, a move that critics denounce as purely political.

The announcement came on the heels of a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court on Wednesday allowing the government-proposed merger, which had previously been blocked by a lower court.

The move is widely seen as a way to remove the museum’s director, Pawel Machcewicz, a longtime friend and ally of EU President Donald Tusk.

Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, is the arch-rival of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Costing 104 million euros ($111 million), the Museum of the Second World War officially opened its doors to the public in the Baltic port city of Gdansk last month.

Conceived by Tusk while he was premier, the facility offers a sweeping panorama of the war that focuses in particular on civilians who made up the majority of its victims.—AFP