Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (, 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
Solidarity Electoral Action ( pl, Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność, AWS) was a political coalition in Poland from 1996 to 2001. From 1997 to 2001, its official name was ''Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność Prawicy'' (AWSP) or Electoral Action Solidarity ...
(AWS). He was born in
Warsaw.
Career
Cimoszewicz was a member of the left-wing
Democratic Left Alliance
The Democratic Left Alliance () was a social democracy, social-democratic list of political parties in Poland, political party in Poland. It was formed in 9 July 1991 as an electoral alliance of centre-left politics, centre-left parties, and bec ...
the leftist candidate in the
Polish presidential election of 1990, receiving 9 percent of the vote.
Cimoszewicz was the
Prime Minister of Poland from 1996 to late 1997.
Cimoszewicz was the
Foreign Minister of Poland in the governments of
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 ...
(2001–2004) and
Marek Belka
Marek Marian Belka (; born 9 January 1952 in Lódź) is a Polish professor of economics and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Poland and Finance Minister of Poland in two governments. He is a former Director of the International Mo ...
(2004–2005). It was during this time that he, along with Leszek Miller, signed the
Accession Treaty that paved way to Polish membership in the
European Union.
Cimoszewicz was the
speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** In ...
of the
Sejm (lower chamber of the Polish parliament) from January to October 2005.
Cimoszewicz was for a time a candidate for the
2005 Polish presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Poland on 9 October and 23 October 2005. The outgoing President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, had served two five-year terms and was unable to stand for a third term. Lech Kaczyński defeated Donald Tu ...
; but he withdrew before the elections and promised to abandon politics.
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
Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule, he was active in the Socialist Union of Poli ...
who twice became president. His election committee was chaired by the wife of President Kwaśniewski,
Jolanta Kwaśniewska
Jolanta Kwaśniewska (Polish: , née Konty, ; born 3 June 1955) is a Polish lawyer and charity activist who was First Lady of Poland between 1995 and 2005, as the wife of the then President Aleksander Kwaśniewski.
Biography
She was a graduate ...
.
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.
Cimoszewicz returned to politics during the
2007 parliamentary election, when he won a
Senate seat as an
independent candidate
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.
Some politicians have political views th ...
. He kept his senator's seat until the end of term in 2015.
In 2009, he was one of two candidates to replace
Terry Davis as
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe (french: Secrétaire général du Conseil de l'Europe, links=no) is appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly on the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers for a period of five years. The secreta ...
. However, in September 2009, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe elected candidate
Thorbjørn Jagland
Thorbjørn Jagland (born Thorbjørn Johansen; , 5 November 1950) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. He served as the secretary general of the Council of Europe from 2009 to 2019. He served as the 32nd prime minister of Norway from ...
as the new secretary general.
Since 2015 Cimoszewicz is workstream leader for the
Agency for the Modernisation of Ukraine
The Agency for the Modernisation of Ukraine (AMU) is a nongovernmental organization. The AMU promotes political stability and economic growth within Ukraine.
It was founded in March 2015 and is headquartered in Vienna. The former Austrian politic ...
(AMU), where he is responsible for combatting corruption.
In the
2019 European Parliament election
The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...
Cimoszewicz was elected as the
MEP for the
Warsaw constituency.
On Ukraine
In May 2014 Cimoszewicz told an audience that he was unhappy with the way the
Russian annexation of Crimea was handled. "The democratic West has so far not reacted in a proper way... If we do not stop that aggressive
ussianpolicy at an early stage then we can face a much more difficult situation requiring more efforts taking higher risks... There is one element of that crisis which will be very difficult to be solved: the fate of Crimea."
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cimoszewicz, Wlodzimierz
1950 births
Candidates in the 1990 Polish presidential election
Candidates in the 2005 Polish presidential election
Democratic Left Alliance politicians
Deputy Prime Ministers of Poland
Living people
Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Justice ministers of Poland
Marshals of the Sejm of the Third Polish Republic
Members of the Polish Sejm 1991–1993
Members of the Polish Sejm 1993–1997
Members of the Polish Sejm 1997–2001
Members of the Polish Sejm 2001–2005
MEPs for Poland 2019–2024
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Poland
Polish atheists
Polish Round Table Talks participants
Polish United Workers' Party members
Politicians from Warsaw
Prime Ministers of Poland
Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 1st Class
University of Białystok faculty
Columbia University alumni
University of Warsaw alumni