President of Poland

Andrzej Duda, President of Poland (Elected on May 24, 2015. Re-elected on Jul 12, 2020 with 51%)

Andrzej Sebastian Duda (Polish pronunciation: [ˈandʐɛj ˈduda] ( listen); born 16 May 1972) is the President-elect of Poland. He is a lawyer and a Member of the European Parliament. The candidate of the Law and Justice party for the office of President of Poland in the 2015 Polish presidential elections, he won the presidential run-off held on 24 May 2015 against incumbent Bronisław Komorowski.

Duda was born in Kraków, the son of Janina Milewska and Jan Tadeusz Duda, professors at AGH University. His grandfather fought in the Polish-Soviet war and later as part of the Home Army.

He attended Jan III Sobieski High School, Kraków, where his wife, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, now teaches German. They met at a party while still attending rival schools and have been married since 21 December 1994. Together they have one daughter, Kinga, born in 1995, now also studying law. His father-in-law is Julian Kornhauser, a well-known writer, translator and literary critic.

He studied law at the Jagiellonian University. In October 2001 he was appointed as an assistant professor in Administrative Law Department of Jagiellonian University, and in January 2005 obtained a PhD degree in law there. Due to his political career, he has been mostly on unpaid leave since September 2006, except for a 13 month interval beginning in September 2010, when he returned to the university.

He is a keen skiier and while studying participated in the Polish Academic Championships in the Alpine skiing category.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrzej_Duda

Bronisław Komorowski, Former President of the Republic of Poland (since July 4, 2010)

After President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, was killed in a plane crush on April 10, 2010, the marshal of the Sejm (Polish Parliament), Bronislaw Komorowski, became Acting President.

Bronislaw Komorowski was born on June 4, 1952 in Oborniki Slaskie, near Wroclaw, a family with strong traditions of independence and landowners.

In Communist times he was involved in opposition activities. Even as a high school student he took part in the demonstrations, including during the March events in 1968. The first time he was arrested was in December 1971.

During many years of underground activity, he was repeatedly arrested and victimized. Since September 1982 he was editor of the independent, underground magazine “ABC” (Adriatic Sea – Baltic Sea – Black Sea). The letter dealt with the problems of Eastern and Central European countries.

In 1977 he married Anne Dembowska. Bronislaw Komorowski has five children: Sophia, Tadeusz, Maria, Peter and Elizabeth.

In 1980-1981 he worked at the Centre for Social Research Solidarity Mazowsze Region. In the period of martial law and later, until 1989, he was a teacher in a seminary in the lower Niepokalanow, where he taught history.

After 1989 he became a member of the national authorities Polish Community – the association supporting the Poles abroad. He was also president of the Foundation Aid Polish libraries, president of the Association of Euro-Atlantic League and president of Sea and River. Since 1989, he held positions in government service.

In 1989-1990 was director Alexander Hall’s Cabinet in the Office of the Council of Ministers.

In 1991, he was a member of parliament – has already served the sixth term. He started working in the Commission for Polish people outside the country and National Defense, then the Foreign Affairs Committee.

In 1990-1993 he was deputy minister of the function of civil defense for the educational and social rule of T. Mazowiecki, JK Bielecki and H. Suchocka.

From 1997 to 2000, chaired the Parliamentary Committee on National Defence.

In 2000-2001 he was the Minister of National Defense in the government of Jerzy Buzek.

Since 2001, he was Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Defense Committee and a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Belonged to the Freedom Union, where he was, inter alia, Secretary-General, then to the Conservative People’s Party, which was, inter alia, Vice-President. Since 2001, he is a member of the Civic Platform, where he is a chairman of the Mazowsze Region, and since June 2006 he was vice-chairman of the whole of the Civic Platform.

In October 2005 he was entrusted with the function of the Sejm Deputy Marshal V term.

He was elected from a list of the Civic Platform party in the ward No 20 Warszawa II. Obtained the largest number of votes in the history of the province – almost 140 thousand. 5 November 2007, Parliament chose him with 292 votes, the Speaker of the Sejm VI mandate.

Lech Kaczyński, Former President of the Republic of Poland

 

(died in a plane crush in Western Russia on April 10,2010)

Born in Warsaw in 1949. Studied law at Warsaw University. In 1971, he moved to Sopot to work as a scholar at the University of Gdańsk. In 1980 he took a doctor’s degree in labor law, and in 1990 he was awarded a post-doctoral degree. In 1977, he began to work for the Interventions Office of the Worker Defense Committee. A year later be became involved in the activity of Independent Trade Unions. In August 1980 he was nominated as an adviser of the Gdańsk Inter-plant Strike Committee. He was also a delegate to the First National Congress of the „Solidarność” Trade Union. Interned during the martial law. When released from internment, he returned to trade union activities. He was a member of the underground Solidarity authorities

In December 1988, became a member of the Civic Committee with Lech Wałęsa. He took part in the Round Table Talks in the team focused on trade union pluralism. In 1990, he was nominated as the Union’s first deputy chairman involved in the running of the Solidarity Trade Union. He was elected senator in the June 1989 election, and two years later a parliamentary deputy representing the Center Civic Alliance Party. In 1991, he was appointed as the head of the National Security Office at the President’s Chancellery. A year later, in1992, he was nominated as the president of the Supreme Chamber of Control (NIK) and he continued to hold that office until 1995.

In June 2000, Lech Kaczyński was nominated as the Minister of Justice by Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek. He soon became the most popular member of the cabinet.

In April 2001, he was elected as the head the National Committee of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) to be elected the party’s president in spring 2001. After the September 2001 parliamentary election he returned to the parliament as the party’s deputy. In autumn 2002 he was elected Warsaw’s mayor with a big advantage over his opponents. He started his term in office by declaring a war against corruption – the so-called „Warsaw connections” – and by restoring law and order. In March 2005 he officially declared his intention to run as a presidential candidate.

Elected President of the Republic of Poland on October 23, he assumed the office on December 23, 2005 by taking an oath before the National Assembly.

Lech Kaczyński’s wife, Maria, is an economist. His daughter Marta graduated from the Department of Law at Gdańsk University. She is married to Piotr, and in 2003 she gave birth to her daughter, Ewa.

Mr. and Mrs. Kaczyński are fond of animals. They have two dogs and two cats.