Roman Giertych
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Roman Jacek Giertych, (pronounced [ˈrɔman ˈgʲɛrtɨx], born 27 February 1971 in Śrem, Poland) is a Polish politician, Deputy Prime Minister and was Minister of Education until August 2007. He was a member of Sejm until October 2007, lower house of the Polish parliament (elected in 2001), and chairman of League of Polish Families party. (Polish: Liga Polskich Rodzin)
[edit] Biography
Roman Giertych comes from a prominent family of Polish politicians, being a son of Maciej Giertych and a grandson of Jędrzej Giertych.
According to his brother (holding a Ph.D. himself), he was a young bookworm who devoured dozens of books, especially on history. He excelled in history throughout his school years while his grades in other subjects remained average. His teacher of biology recalls him questioning the validity of the theory of evolution; a stance that he carried away from his family home, especially his creationist father Maciej Giertych (a Ph.D. in forest genetics).
He graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań with master's degrees in both law and history. In 1989, he reactivated the far-right "All-Polish Youth" (Młodzież Wszechpolska) organization, becoming its chairman; he remains honorary chairman to this day. For several years he was a member of the National-Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne) and the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe), which merged with several other organizations to form the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) in 2001.
Giertych and the LPR have a strong national and anti-EU profile. Prior to the 2003 Polish referendum on EU membership, the LPR campaigned vehemently against it, denouncing it as a "centralised, socialist superstate". Officially, the LPR declares that it favours a "Europe of nations". Under Giertych's leadership, the LPR was successful in the European Parliament elections in June 2004, temporarily becoming the second-strongest Polish party with 14% of the votes. His father Maciej Giertych was elected MEP. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, though, LPR gained only 8% of the votes.
In July 2004 Roman Giertych was elected a member and vicechairman of PKN Orlen investigation commission, which is credited, among other things, with destroying presidential aspirations of Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz.
On May 5, 2006, Giertych was appointed as Minister of Education and vice-premier, while the LPR joined a governmental coalition with PiS. Due to his nationalist views, this decision was considered controversial by some. The following day, about 100 people, mostly left-wing and anarchist activists, protested in front of the Ministry of Education against this appointment.[1] A couple of weeks later over 140 000 people signed a petition to remove him from the post.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ IU: Nie dla Giertycha!, Inicjatywa Uczniowska, Indymedia Poland, May 6, 2006
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