Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz

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His Excellency Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz MEP
8th Prime Minister of Poland
In office 7 February 1996 – 31 October 1997
President	Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Deputy	Grzegorz Kołodko Roman Jagieliński Mirosław Pietrewicz Marek Belka Jarosław Kalinowski
Preceded by	Józef Oleksy
Succeeded by	Jerzy Buzek
7th Marshal of the Sejm
In office 5 January 2005 – 18 October 2005
President	Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Prime Minister	Marek Belka
Preceded by	Józef Oleksy
Succeeded by	Marek Jurek
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 19 October 2001 – 5 January 2005
Prime Minister	Leszek Miller Marek Belka
Preceded by	Władysław Bartoszewski
Succeeded by	Adam Daniel Rotfeld
Minister of Justice Public Prosecutor General
In office 26 October 1993 – 1 March 1995
Prime Minister	Waldemar Pawlak
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Personal details
Born	(1950-09-13) 13 September 1950 (age 70) Warsaw, Poland
Political party	United Workers' Party (1971–1990) Social Democracy (1990–1999) Democratic Left Alliance (1999–2005) Independent (2005–present)
Spouse(s)	Barbara Cimoszewicz
Children
Education	University of Warsaw
Awards

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (Polish pronunciation: [vwɔˈd͡ʑimjɛʂ t͡ɕimɔˈʂɛvit͡ʂ] (listen), born 13 September 1950) is a Polish left-wing politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland for a year from 7 February 1996 to 31 October 1997, after being defeated in the Parliamentary elections by the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS).^[1][2][3] He was born in Warsaw.

Career[]

Cimoszewicz was a member of the left-wing Democratic Left Alliance, the Prime Minister of Poland from 1996 to late 1997, the Foreign Minister of Poland in the governments of Leszek Miller (2001–2004) and Marek Belka (2004–2005), the speaker of the Sejm (lower chamber of the Polish parliament) from January to October 2005 and the leftist candidate in the Polish presidential election of 1990 (receiving 9 percent of the vote) and of 2005 (he withdrew before the elections and promised to abandon politics).

Along with Leszek Miller, he signed the Accession Treaty that paved way to Polish membership in the European Union.

Presidential bid[]

On 28 June 2005, Cimoszewicz declared his intent to run for Polish President (see: Election 2005). He instantly became a leader in the polls. He ran previously in 1990 and received 9.21 percent of the vote. In 1990, Lech Wałęsa and Stan Tymiński went on to the second round. Cimoszewicz did not run in the years 1995 and 2000 giving way to his close colleague Aleksander Kwaśniewski who twice became president. His election committee was chaired by the wife of President Kwaśniewski, Jolanta Kwaśniewska.

On 9 July 2005, Cimoszewicz caused a major political uproar by refusing to testify in front of the Orlen commission. He accused seven of its eight members of being politically motivated, partial and bent on undermining his presidential bid. Constitutional experts are split on whether his move was constitutional or if Cimoszewicz broke the law. Fifty-eight percent of Poles disapproved of Cimoszewicz's behaviour before the commission.

According to a poll by Rzeczpospolita, Cimoszewicz was a "hands down" leader on 5 July 2005:

• Cimoszewicz: 28%
• Kaczyński: 19%
• Lepper: 17%
• Religa: 15%
• Tusk: 11%
• Borowski: 5%

He was predicted to win the second round, independent of who was going to reach it from second place. The election was won by Lech Kaczyński.

Later career[]

Cimoszewicz returned to politics during the 2007 parliamentary election, when he won a Senate seat as an independent candidate. He kept his senator's seat until the end of term in 2015. Since 2015 Cimoszewicz is workstream leader for the Agency for the Modernisation of Ukraine (AMU), where he is responsible for combatting corruption.^[4]

In 2009, he was one of two candidates to replace Terry Davis as Secretary General of the Council of Europe. However, in September 2009, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe elected candidate Thorbjørn Jagland as the new secretary general.

In the 2019 European Parliament election Cimoszewicz was elected as the MEP for the Warsaw constituency.

References[]