Aleksander Kwaśniewski
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| Aleksander Kwaśniewski | |
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| In office December 23, 1995 – December 22, 2005 |
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| Preceded by | Lech Wałęsa |
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| Succeeded by | Lech Kaczyński |
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| Born | November 15, 1954 (age 52) Białogard, Poland |
| Spouse | Jolanta Kwaśniewska |
| Religion | Agnostic or atheist |
Aleksander Kwaśniewski ([alɛk'sandɛr kfaɕɲefskʲi] ; born November 15, 1954) is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during the communist era he was active in the communist Socialist Union of Polish Students (Socjalistyczny Związek Studentów Polskich) and was sports minister in the communist government in 1980s. He was a former leader of the left-wing Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, successor to the former ruling Polish United Workers Party, and later of the Democratic Left Alliance.
Kwaśniewski was elected president in 1995, defeating the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa. He was re-elected to a second and final term as president in 2000 in a decisive first-round victory. His term ended on December 23, 2005, when he handed over power to his elected successor, conservative Lech Kaczyński.
In 1979 he married lawyer Jolanta Kwaśniewska (née Konty). Together they have one daughter, Aleksandra Kwaśniewska, who was born in 1981.
Confusingly, some of the English-language press reports that Kwaśniewski has sometimes identified himself as an atheist [12] [13] [14] although in the Polish-language press he identifies himself as an agnostic. [15] [16]
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[edit] 1973–1991: Early political career
In the years 1973 to 1977, Aleksander Kwaśniewski studied transport economics and foreign trade at the University of Gdańsk, though he never graduated. He became politically active at this time, and joined the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) in 1977, remaining a member until it was dissolved in 1990. An activist in the communist student movement until 1982, he held, among other positions, the chairmanship of the University Council of the Socialist Union of Polish Students (SZSP) from 1976 to 1977 and the vice-chairmanship of the Gdańsk Voivodship Union from 1977 to 1979. Kwaśniewski was a member of the SZSP supreme authorities from 1977 to 1982. From November 1981 to February 1984 he was the editor-in-chief of the student weekly ITD, then editor-in-chief of the daily Sztandar Młodych from 1984 to 1985. He was a co-founder of the first computer-science periodical in Poland, Bajtek, in 1985.
From 1985 to 1987, Kwaśniewski was Minister for Youth Affairs in the Zbigniew Messner government, and then Chairman of the Committee for Youth and Physical Culture till June 1990. He joined the government of Mieczysław Rakowski, first as a cabinet minister and then as chairman of the government Social-Political Committee from October 1988 to September 1989. A participant in the Round-Table negotiations, he co-chaired the task group for trade-union pluralism with Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Romuald Sosnowski. As the PZPR was wound up, he became a founding member of the Social Democratic Party of the Republic of Poland from January to February 1990, and its first chairman until he assumed the presidency in December 1995. He was also one of the founding members of the Democratic Left Alliance in 1991.
A sports enthusiast, Kwaśniewski was an activist in the Student Sports Union from 1975 to 1979 and the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOL); he later served as PKOL president from 1988 to 1991.
[edit] 1991–1995: Parliamentary terms
Running for the Sejm from the Warsaw constituency in 1991, he won the largest number of votes (148,533). Kwaśniewski headed the parliamentary caucus of the Democratic Left Alliance in his first and second terms (1991-1995). He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly from November 1993 to November 1995.
[edit] 1995–2005: Presidency
In an often bitter campaign, Aleksander Kwaśniewski won the presidential election in 1995, collecting 51.7 percent of votes in the run-off, against 48.3 percent for the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa, the former Solidarity leader. Kwaśniewski's campaign slogans were "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość) and "A Poland for all" (Wspólna Polska). Political opponents disputed his victory, claiming that he had lied about his education in registration documents and public presentations, implying that he had graduated from university. A court challenge confirmed the fact but the court judged it irrelevant for the election result.
Kwaśniewski took the presidential oath of office on December 23, 1995. Later the same day, he was sworn in as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces at the Warszawa First Fighter Wing, in Mińsk Mazowiecki.
Despite the deep polarization brought about by his election, and opposition fears that a Kwaśniewski presidency would signal a return to communism, these fears proved groundless and he proved a surprisingly popular leader. His political course resembled that of Wałęsa's in several key respects, such as the pursuit of closer ties to the European Union and NATO, and the transition to a market economy and the privatization of state-owned enterprises, but he was able to avoid the conflicts with the Sejm that had often characterized his predecessor's term of office. He wanted to be seen as "the president of all Poles", including his political opponents and he quit the Democratic Left Alliance after election. Later, he cohabited with the rightist government of Jerzy Buzek without major conflicts and on several occasions he stood against movements of the Democratic Left Alliance government of Leszek Miller. At one moment, support for Kwaśniewski reached as high as 80% in popularity polls; most of the time it was over 50%.
An initial success of Kwaśniewski's was his ability to bring about a new Constitution of Poland to replace the modified Stalinist document then still in use. The failure to create a new document had been a criticism often leveled at Wałęsa. Kwaśniewski actively campaigned for its approval in the subsequent referendum, and he signed it into law on July 16, 1997.
Kwaśniewski took an active part in the efforts to secure Polish membership of NATO. He headed Poland's delegation at the 1997 Madrid summit, where Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary were promised membership; and the Washington summit, where on February 26, 1999, during the Kosovo conflict, which he supported, he signed the instruments ratifying Poland's membership of NATO. He also took active part in promoting further enlargement of the alliance, speaking out in favor of membership for a further seven states (see Prague summit) and the open-door policy that leaves open the option of further members. He was an author of the 2002 Riga Initiative, a forum for cooperation between Central European states, aimed towards further enlargement of NATO and the European Union.
An advocate of regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, Kwaśniewski hosted a summit of the region's leaders at Łańcut in 1996. Speaking out against the danger organized crime posed to the region, he submitted a draft of a convention on fighting organised crime to the UN in 1996. He was an active participant at meetings of regional leaders in Portorož in 1997, Levoča in 1998, and Lviv and Yalta in 1999. After a history of sometimes acrimonious relations with Lithuania, Kwaśniewski was a driving force behind the presidential summit in Vilnius in 1997, at which the two countries' presidents signed a treaty of friendship. Poland subsequently became one of the strongest advocates of Lithuanian membership in NATO and the European Union and the strongest advocate of Ukraine in Europe.
In 2000 he was re-elected in the first round of voting, collecting 53.9 percent of the vote. His election campaign slogan was: "A home for all—Poland" (Dom wszystkich—Polska). On December 23, 2000 he took office for the second term.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Kwaśniewski organized an international conference in Warsaw, with participation of leaders from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe to strengthen regional activities in fighting international terrorism. Under Kwaśniewski's leadership, Poland became a strong ally of the United States in the war on terror, and contributed troops in the Iraq war, a move that was highly controversial in Poland and Europe. Poland was in charge of a sector of Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein.
Polish membership of the European Union became a reality on May 1, 2004, during Kwaśniewski's second term. Both he and his wife Jolanta had campaigned for approval of the EU accession treaty in June 2003. He strongly supported including mention of Europe's Christian roots into the European Constitution.[17][18] Thanks to his close relations with Leonid Kuchma, in late 2004 he became a mediator in a political conflict in Ukraine - the Orange Revolution, and according to some commentators, he played the major role in its peaceful solution.
[edit] Controversies
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In his candidate for presidency statement Kwaśniewski declared that he has graduated university studies. [1] Actually he has never written his master thesis, nor passed the university final exams and therefore has no master degree. This came to light after the election.
He also failed to disclose controversial investments made by his wife, and he once avoided journalists by sneaking out a window in the Parliament. The latter event was filmed and broadcasted by a major public TV station (TVP 1) [2]
During presidency campaign in 2000 a film was published revealing Marek Siwiec, that time chief of National Security Bureau, parodying a gesture of the pope John Paul II (making a cross sign in the air on arrival). President Kwaśniewski encouraged Siwiec to make a parody of pope's another gesture (kissing the soil).[3]
Another film [19] showed Kwaśniewski visiting a Kharkov cemetery where Polish officers murdered by NKVD in Katyń were buried. He appeared to have difficulty articulating words and standing properly.[4] His left-wing proponents explained this by "tiredness in connection with an injury to his right shin" while rightist politicians claimed, that he was simply drunk. Eventually, at the end of his term (2005) journalist asked, if he had drunk alcohol there. Kwaśniewski replied Of course, not soda water. President explained, that Ukrainians are simply hospitable and he didn't refuse them.
In December 2005 when his presidency was to end, he granted a pardon/clemency to Zbigniew Sobotka, who was sentenced for 3.5 year for revealing a state secret (effectively, he warned gangsters about an operation against them).[5][6][7][8][9] Another Kwaśniewski's highly controversial grant of pardon was the Vogel case. The story goes back to 1971 when Piotr Filipczyński, a.k.a. Peter Vogel was sentenced to 25 years of jail for a brutal murder (shortened to 15 years in 1979). Surprisingly enough, in 1983 (during the martial law in Poland) he was granted the passport and allowed to leave the country. He returned in 1990 earning soon the nickame of "the accountant of the Left" as a former Swiss banker who took care of more than thirty accounts of Polish Socialdemoctats. Despite an arrest warrant issued in 1987, Vogel was moving freely in Poland to be eventually arrested in 1998 in Switzerland. After Vogel's extradition to Poland, in 1999 Kwaśniewski initiated the procedure of granting him amnesty. In December 2005 (a few days before leaving his office) Kwaśniewski pardoned Vogel despite the negative opinion of the procurer.[10][11]
Kwasniewski awarded Poland's equivalent of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to one Stanislaw Suproniuk Instytut Pamięci Narodowej - Institute of National Remembrance, a prominent torturer from the Stalinist era. This secret policeman's claim to fame is that he kidnapped a pregnant wife of a pro-Western underground commander and shot her dead. She was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. [20], [21], [22],
Aleksander Kwasniewski also didn't face special parliamentary commission Poland: Paper Chase, Endgame Sans President, which was set up to reveal all circumstances linked with Rywingate (Lew Rywin, a quasi businessman who offered support in changing press regulation in favor of press corporation Agora), Lew Rywin claimed the support would come from Leszek Miller, who was prime minister and friend of Aleksander Kwasniewski, both Kwasniewski and Leszek Miller come form SLD and before the party was called in communism times: Polish United Workers' Party. Although publicly Kwasniewski announced that he will "appear and even dance in front of the commission". [23]
In Moscow on May 9, 2005 Aleksander Kwasniewski took part in commemorating Allied victory over Nazi Germany. Mr. Kwaśniewski Goes to Moscow. Although the majority of the parliament was against it, Russian president Vladimir Putin didn't recognize Polish military contributions during the Second World War. Moreover during the ceremony Wojciech Jaruzelski, who was in fact Poland's dictator during martial law in 1980 (which was introduced by him), was present.[24], [25], [26]
Recently it also appered that Kwasniewski was registered during communist times as an agent of the secret police, the Security Service (SB, Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa).The institute of world politics
[edit] 2006 - : Post-Presidency
On March 7, 2006, Kwaśniewski was appointed Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership at Georgetown University, where, as a visiting faculty member, he teaches students in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service about contemporary European politics, the trans-Atlantic relationship, and democratization in Central and Eastern Europe.[12]
In September 2005, Kwaśniewski was briefly involved in American politics when he campaigned with Marc Holtzman during the latter's bid to become Governor of Colorado.
[edit] Awards
Aleksander Kwaśniewski was honored with the following decorations:
- Grand Master of the Order of the White Eagle (ex officio)
- Lithuania's Order of Vytautas the Great, 1st grade (1996), the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, 1st grade; Order of Vytautas the Great with Golden Chain (2005)
- Great Britain's Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (March 1996) and the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (October 1996)
- Italy's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1996)
- France's Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour (1996)
- Norway's Royal Order of Saint Olaf (1996)
- Greece's Grand Cross of the Order of the Saviour (1996)
- Latvia's Order of Three Stars (1997)
- Finland's Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland with Collar (1997)
- Malaysia's Royal Order of Merit (1997)
- Ukraine's Order of Yaroslav the Wise, 1st class (1997)
- Portugal's Order of Infant Henry with Grand Ribbon (1997)
- Estonia's Grand Cross with the Ribbon of Terra Mariana (1998)
- Romania's Order of the Star of Romania with Ribbon (1999)
- Chile's Grand Chain of the Order of Merit (1999)
- Belgium's Grand Ribbon of the Order of Leopold (1999)
- Turkey's Order of the Republic (2000)
- Croatia's Great Order of King Tomislav with the Ribbon and Great Star (2001)
- Spain's Order of Catholic Isabelle with Chain (2001)
- Brazil's National Order of Southern Cross (2002)
- Peru's Special Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (2002)
- Germany's Grand Cross of Merit (2002)
- Japan's Grand Ribbon of the Great Order of Chrysanthemum
- International: Order of Smile
- International: Golden Olympic Order of the International Olympic Committee in (1998)
- International: Golden Order of Merit of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (1999)
- International: Order of Merit of the European Olympic Committee (2000)
He was also awarded the highest distinction of the Polish Orthodox Church, the Order of Saint Magdalena, first degree with decorations (1998). He also received the television "Wiktor" prizes in 1993, 1995, and 2000.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Warsaw Voice Lies, Damn Lies and Campaign Statements
- ^ A. Kwasniewski filmed leaving the Sejm building through a window. Retrieved on 19/12/2006
- ^ [1], [2], [3]
- ^ [4] "Pre-elections and Scandals", Warsaw Voice. Retrieved on 30 Dec 2006. See also CE-Review article
- ^ Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, The Institute of World Politics [5] (Retrieved on 31.12.2006)
- ^ (Polish) Gazeta Wyborcza article [6]
- ^ (Polish) wp.pl news portal [7]
- ^ (Polish) Gazeta Polska article [8], [9]
- ^ (Polish)money.pl portal article [10]
- ^ The institute of world politics, retrieved on 2007.01.01
- ^ [11] (Polish) Wprost article
- ^ Former Polish President Joins SFS Faculty
| Preceded by Lech Wałęsa |
President of Poland 1995-2005 |
Succeeded by Lech Kaczyński |
