Włodzimierz Czarzasty (born 3 May 1960) is a Polish politician who serves as the co-chairperson of the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...

party ().

Biography

Born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Poland, Czarzasty graduated with degrees in journalism and political science from the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

in the 1980s. Simultaneously, he was a member of

Polish Students' Association Polish Students' Association ( pl, Zrzeszenie Studentów Polskich) is the oldest of Polish student societies. It was created in 1950 in Polish People's Republic. Currently it has about 10,000 members in about 100 academic institutions. See also *I ...

(ZSP), leader of association "Ordynacka", and a member of

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

(PZPR) from 1983 to 1990. Following the fall of Communism, Czarzasty became a member of SLD, the successor of PZPR. In the 1997 general election, he ran for the SLD but lost. In May 1999, he was appointed to the National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television by the President

Aleksander Kwasniewski Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

. He became a point of controversy during the Rywin corruption scandal, but he was not formally charged with any crime. After a long extra-parliamentary career, Czarzasty ran as part of United Left (ZL) party in the 2015 election. Since ZL has not passed the 8% threshold required to hold seats in the ''Sejm'', none of the candidates, including Czarzasty, won. During the party leadership election in January 2016, Czarzasty defeated former MP

Jerzy Wenderlich Jerzy Jan Wenderlich (pronounced ; born 22 April 1954 in Toruń) is a Polish politician. He was initially elected to Sejm in 1993, representing the Democratic Left Alliance, and was reelected in 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2007. In the 2004 European P ...

and was elected as the new president of Democratic Left Alliance, replacing the incumbent leader and former Prime Minister

Leszek Miller Leszek Cezary Miller (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 July 1946) is a Polish politician. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since July 2019. From 1989 to 1990 was a member of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' P ...

. He was a candidate for the Masovian Regional Assembly during the local elections in 2018, but lost.

Sejm

Włodzimierz Czarzasty i Grzegorz Schetyna

In the 2019 parliamentary election, Czarzasty co-led the ''Lewica'' coalition, together with

Adrian Zandberg Adrian Tadeusz Zandberg (born 4 December 1979 in Aalborg) is a Poles, Polish historian and computer programmer, doctor of humanities and left-wing politician, serving as one of the co-leaders of Left Together, Razem (''Together''). Life His paren ...

and

Robert Biedroń Robert Biedroń (; born 13 April 1976) is a Polish politician, former mayor of Słupsk, and LGBT activist who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. Biedroń was a member of the Sejm during its 7th session (2011–2 ...

, and was elected to the ''Sejm''. He was a candidate from

Sosnowiec Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Silesian Metropolis municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industria ...

constituency. On 12 November 2019, Czarzasty was elected Deputy Marshal of the Sejm in representation of ''Lewica''. In July 2021, Czarzasty suspended the party member rights of Karolina Pawliczak and five other New Left MPs after they disagreed with him and made their disagreement public. The suspended politicians sent a letter to Czarzasty in which they questioned the fact that certain political commitments were made on behalf of the party, and allowed their letter to be public. Czarzasty accused them of an action grossly violating the obligation to care for the good name of the party. Pawliczak said: "Democracy, not bullying; talking, not suspending and expelling from the party ... I want to continue building such a democratic party with my friends."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Czarzasty, Wlodzimierz 1960 births Living people Politicians from Warsaw Democratic Left Alliance politicians University of Warsaw alumni Members of the Polish Sejm 2019–2023