Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz (; born 29 July 1961) is a Polish politician who served as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in the government of

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk (born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since 2023, previously holding the office from 2007 to 2014. Tusk served as the president of the European Council (20 ...

from 25 February 2013 to 22 September 2014. From 13 December 2023 to 13 May 2024, Sienkiewicz has served as Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the third cabinet of Donald Tusk.

Early life and education

Sienkiewicz was born on 29 July 1961. He is the great-grandson of Nobel Prize–winning author

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish epic writer. He is remembered for his historical novels, such as The Trilogy, the Trilogy series and especially ...

. Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz is a graduate of

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

Early life and career

Sienkiewicz participated in Cracow's opposition movement in the early 1980s. In 1990, he co-established the Office for State Protection and the Centre for Eastern Studies, a think-tank organization. He served as the deputy director of the center for eight years, specifically from 1991 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2001. In the early 2000s, Sienkiewicz left the state administration and began to work in private sector, founding a firm on the investment risk and analysis of the competitive environment (ASBS Othago, then "Sienkiewicz and Partners").

Political career

Minister of the Interior, 2013–2014

On 25 February 2013, Sienkiewicz was appointed by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Bronisław Komorowski Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who was the fifth president of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski previously served as Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Minister of National Defence ...

as Minister of the Interior to the cabinet led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Sienkiewicz replaced Jacek Cichocki in the post. Sienkiewicz was one of the politicians at the centre of the tape scandal that occurred in Poland in the summer of 2014 when many of the key figures of the Polish political scene were covertly recorded in private. He was recorded during a conversation with Marek Belka, governor of the National Bank of Poland, during which they discussed in a Warsaw restaurant a possible change of the Minister of Finance; Belka and Sienkiewicz later said their words were taken out of context and they denied doing anything illegal. In July 2014, the Polish parliament rejected a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

in Sienkiewicz. However, the district prosecutor's office in Warsaw launched an investigation in August 2014 to establish if Belka and Sienkiewicz had exceeded their authority. Sienkiewicz resigned along with the entire government following the election of Donald Tusk as the new

President of the European Council The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This Institutions of the European Union, institution comprises the college of heads of state or governme ...

and did not enter the new cabinet headed by

Ewa Kopacz Ewa Bożena Kopacz (; née Lis; born 3 December 1956) is a Polish politician who has served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament since 2019. She previously was Marshal of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014, the first woman to hold the office, as ...

Parliamentary career

In the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

, Sienkiewicz won a seat in the Ninth Sejm, having run as the leader of the Civic Platform list in the Kielce district and receiving 35,009 votes. After the elections, he joined the PO and in January 2020 filed his candidacy for party chairman. As a result of the vote in the same month, he came in last place among the four candidates. Sienkiewicz was again elected to the Parliament in the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

on 15 October 2023.

Minister of Culture and National Heritage, 2023–2024

He was appointed Minister of Culture and National Heritage on 13 December 2023 to the cabinet led by Donald Tusk. On 19 December 2023, he illegally dismissed the directors of TVP,

Polish Radio The Polish Radio (PR; Polish: ''Polskie Radio'', PR) is a national public-service radio broadcasting organization of Poland, founded in 1925. It is owned by the State Treasury of Poland. On 27 December 2023, the Minister of Culture and Nationa ...

and PAP, leading to the

2023 takeover of TVP On December 19, 2023, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, dismissed the then-current state media directors and their supervisory boards, most notably those of public broadcaster Telewizja Polska ( ...

. The move was met with criticism and accusations of illegality by the dismissed management and the opposition

Law and Justice Law and Justice ( , PiS) is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative List of political parties in Poland, political party in Poland. The party is a member of European Conservatives and Refo ...

party, causing a parliamentary intervention in the TVP headquarters. On 25 April 2024, Sienkiewicz resigned from the ministry and announced his candidacy for the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

in elections to be held on 9 June, waiting for the president to have accepted his resignation.

Personal life

Sienkiewicz is married and has four children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sienkiewicz, Bartlomiej 20th-century Polish businesspeople 1961 births Polish corporate directors Jagiellonian University alumni Interior ministers of Poland Living people Politicians from Kielce Members of the Polish Sejm 2019–2023 21st-century Polish businesspeople Members of the Polish Sejm 2023–2027 Culture ministers of Poland Civic Platform politicians MEPs for Poland 2024–2029 Recipients of Cross of Freedom and Solidarity