Tadeusz Mazowiecki
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| Tadeusz Mazowiecki | |
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| In office December 31, 1989 – January 12, 1991 |
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| President | Wojciech Jaruzelski, Lech Wałęsa |
| Vice PM | Leszek Balcerowicz, Czesław Janicki, Jan Janowski, Czesław Kiszczak |
| Preceded by | (Was Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Poland) |
| Succeeded by | Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
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| In office August 24, 1989 – December 31, 1989 |
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| President | Wojciech Jaruzelski |
| Vice PM | Leszek Balcerowicz, Czesław Janicki, Jan Janowski, Czesław Kiszczak |
| Preceded by | Czesław Kiszczak |
| Succeeded by | (Became Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland) |
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| Born | April 18, 1927 Płock, Second Republic of Poland |
| Political party | PAX Association Znak Solidarity Democratic Union Freedom Union Democratic Party – demokraci.pl |
| Spouse | Twice widowed |
| Profession | Author, Journalist, Social worker |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Tadeusz Mazowiecki (pronounced [taˈdɛuʃ mazɔˈvʲɛʦkʲi], born April 18, 1927 in Płock) is a Polish author, journalist, social worker and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.
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[edit] Biography
Mazowiecki comes from a Polish noble family, which uses the Dołęga coat of arms. He has secondary education - he had graduated from the Marshal Stanislaw Małachowski Lyceum (class 1946), then he studied law at Warsaw University. However, he never graduated. From 1945 to 1955, Mazowiecki was affiliated with the Communist-controlled Catholic PAX Association from which he was later excluded because he was the leader of an internal opposition. Between 1953 and 1955, he was an editor-in-chief of Catholic Wroclaw Weekly (WTK - Wrocławski Tygodnik Katolicki). During stalinism in Poland he participated in defamation of Bishop of Kielce Czesław Kaczmarek, groundlessly accused by Communists of being an American and Vatican spy.[1]
He was one of the founding members of the Catholic Intelligentsia Club, which was established in 1957. In 1958, Mazowiecki established Więź monthly and became the editor-in-chief of that magazine. From 1961-72, he was a representative of the Sejm (the Polish Parliament's lower house), serving his third, fourth and fifth terms as a member of the Catholic group Znak. He discussed the student’s march which took place in March, 1968.
After the 1970 protests in Poland, Mazowiecki insisted on setting up a committee in order to find those who were responsible for the bloodshed. In 1976, he joined the opposition because he was deprived of the opportunity to run for parliamentary office.
In August 1980, he took control over the Board of Experts, which aimed at supporting the workers from Gdansk who were negotiating with the authorities. Beginning in 1981, he was the editor-in-chief of ‘Solidarity’ weekly magazine. After martial law came into force in December 1981 he was arrested and imprisoned in Strzebielnik, then in Jaworz and finally in Darłówek.
He was released as one of the last prisoners on 23 December 1982. In 1987, he spent a year abroad, where he was talking to politicians and representatives of trade unions. Starting in 1988, he held talks in Magdalenka. Being a supporter of taking power from the ruling Polish United Worker’s Party by negotiations, he actively attended the Polish Round Table Talks and became one of the most important architects of the agreement by virtue of which partly free elections were held on June 4th. On August 17th, Mazowiecki met with Lech Walesa, who offered him the position of Prime Minister in his newly-formed government.
[edit] Cabinet of Tadeusz Mazowiecki
During his first parliamentary speech as Prime Minister, Mazowiecki fainted. However, it was not to be an omen of things to come. Mazowiecki’s government managed to carry out many fundamental reforms in a short period. The political system was thoroughly changed; a full range of civil freedoms as well as a multi-party system were introduced and the country’s emblem and national flag were changed (from the Communist People’s Republic of Poland to the Republic of Poland). On December 29th, 1989, the fundamental changes in the Polish Constitution were made. By virtue of these changes, the preamble was deleted, the chapters concerning political and economic forms of government were changed, the chapters concerning trade unions were rewritten and a uniform notion of possession was introduced. Thanks to these changes, the economic transformation was enabled. The set of reforms originating under Mazowiecki’s government (named after its creator – Balcerowicz’s plan) enabled the destruction of hyperinflation, changes in the economy and the introduction of free market mechanisms and privatization.
[edit] “Thick line”
In his expose in the Parliament, Mazowiecki was talking about a “thick line” (pol. "gruba linia"). Media later called this term as a “thick stroke” (pol. "gruba kreska"). Originally, it meant non-liability of his government for damages done to the national economy by previous governments. Nowadays, this citation is used by Mazowiecki’s critics to describe alleged forbearance of the government of that time for former activists of the Polish People’s Republic and security services subordinated to them. The fact is that in Mazowiecki’s government, the Department of Interior and the Department of Defense were controlled by the regime’s people. Also, the Secret Political Police, under surveillance of Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak, continually spied on that part of the democratic opposition which was against the agreements of the Round Table. During that time, Secret Political Police was able to destroy parts of its own archives. Just few months after Mazowiecki took office of the Prime Minister, Secret Political Police was dissolved and Czeslaw Kiszczak resigned his post.
[edit] The later years
A conflict with Lech Wałęsa resulted in disintegration of Citizen’s Parliamentary Club that represented solidarity camp. The Citizen’s Parliamentary Club was divided into Centre Agreement, which supported Walesa, and ROAD, which took sides with Mazowiecki. That conflict lead both politicians to compete in presidential election at the end of 1990. Mazowiecki, who during Solidarity times was an advisor to Lech Walesa and strike committee in Gdansk’s shipyard, stood against Walesa in election and lost to him. He did not even join the second round (he gained support of 18.08% of people - 2 973 364 votes) and was defeated by Stanislaw Tyminski, an exotic candidate from Canada.
Since 1991, Mazowiecki became a chairman of Democratic Union (later Freedom Union), from 1995 – he was its honorary president. Together with Jan Maria Rokita, Aleksander Hall and Hanna Suchocka he represented Christian Democratic Wing of the party.
He was removed from his position because of the criticism from the left side of the Freedom Union (Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, Barbara Labuda), who accused Mazowiecki of indecisiveness, indolence in making decisions and excessive conservatism. Between 1989 and 2001 Mazowiecki was a representative to the Polish Parliament (first from Poznan, later from Cracow).
In 1992, he was elected the Special Emissary of United Nations Organization to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1995, he resigned because of the idleness of great powers concerning war crimes in Bosnia, especially the assassination of few thousand men and boys in Srebrenica done by Serbian soldiers. He announced in his report breaking of human rights by all participants of this conflict.
Mazowiecki was a Member of Parliament in first, second and third term (member of Democratic Union, later the Freedom Union. During the National Assembly (1997) he introduced compromise preamble of Polish constitution (previously written by founders of “Tygodnik Powszechny” (trans. Universal Weekly)), which was accepted by the National Assembly. In November 2002, he left the Freedom Union, in the protest against abandoning Christian Democratic Internationaland electoral and local coalition with Democratic Left Alliance and Self Defense party in Warmian-Masurian Region.
In 2005, he became on of the founders of the Democratic Party- democrats.pl- created through expanding the former Freedom Union by new members, especially young people and few left wing politicians. He was a leader on the parliamentary list in parliamentary elections in Warsaw constituency in 2005 with 30143 votes. The highest number of votes he gained in Żoliborz district, and the lowest in Rembertow. Until 2006, he was the leader of its Political Council.
Mazowiecki received numerous awards. An honorary degree from the Universities in: Leuven, Genoa, Giessen, Poitiers, Exeter, Warsaw University and University of Economics in Katowice. He also received the Order of White Eagle (1995), Golden Order of Bosnia (1996), Legion d’Honneur (1997), Srebrnica Award (2005), the Giant award (1995) awarded by “Gazeta Wyborcza” (trans. Election Gazette) in Poznan and Jan Nowak-Jezioranski Award (2004). In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.[2]
Member of the Club of Madrid[1]. [3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Kotaolicy przeciwko kościołowi Rzeczpospolita 3 12 2007
- ^ Amnesty International, 12 September 2003, Amnesty International welcomes the election of a Board of Directors. Retrieved on 1 August 2007.
- ^ (English) [http://www.clubmadrid.org The Club of Madrid is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its Members – 66 democratic former heads of state and government.
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| Preceded by Czesław Kiszczak |
Prime Minister of Poland 1989–1991 |
Succeeded by Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
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