Paweł Bartłomiej Piskorski (born 25 February 1968 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) is a former Polish politician. He was

Mayor of Warsaw The Mayor of Warsaw (officially in ) is the head of the executive of the capital of Poland elected directly during local elections for a term of five years. Overview The first city mayor of Warsaw was Jan Andrzej Menich (1695–1696). Th ...

from 30 March 1999 to 14 January 2002. In 1997 he was elected to the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

from the Freedom Union electoral list, and in 2001, after participating in a secession from that party, he successfully ran under the

Civic Platform The Civic Platform (, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a Centre-right politics, centre-right liberal conservative political party in Poland. Since ...

banner. In 2004 he was the Secretary General of Civic Platform. He has been elected Member of 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 2004. On 26 April 2006 he was excluded from the Civic Platform. Since February 2009 he has been the chairman of the Democratic Party.

Alleged corruption

In April 2006 Polish newspaper "Dziennik" informed about the purchase in 2005 by Paweł Piskorski and his wife of more than 320 hectares of land for afforestation. The total cost of the purchase amounted to 1.25 million zł. According to the newspaper’s journalist, this amount exceeded the value of assets declared by the MEP in a financial statement for that year. Paweł Piskorski explained that the money came from sale of property, credit, savings and current income by him and his wife. That declaration was not officially challenged by any public authority. Nevertheless, Piskorski's reputation has been irrecoverably damaged. The day after the publication the national board of the

(Platforma Obywatelska) decided to exclude him from the party, which was followed on 17 May by the removal of his ten collaborators, among others, Piotr Fogler. The official reason stated was damage to Civic Platform’s image. In January 2009 Paweł Piskorski joined the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne), thus becoming the only MEP of the party, as well as declaring his intention to run for the position of chairman. This position was obtained at an extraordinary Democratic Party congress, held on 21 February that year. However, his nomination was followed by the publication of his statements given to the National Revenue Service agency to explain sources of his income. He tried to explain that he earned money by persistent winnings at the casino and by art trading. Public opinion took these clarifications with disbelief, which torpedoed the election campaign of the Democratic Party. In January 2010, a public prosecutor charged him with the use of a forged document (contract with an antique dealer) in tax proceedings. Paweł Piskorski pleaded not guilty to committing this act. Piskorski is listed in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

as a beneficiary or shareholder in an offshore company.

References

External links

official website
(in Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Piskorski, Pawel 1968 births Living people Politicians from Warsaw Mayors of Warsaw Liberal Democratic Congress politicians Freedom Union (Poland) politicians Civic Platform politicians Alliance of Democrats (Poland) politicians Members of the Polish Sejm 1991–1993 Members of the Polish Sejm 1997–2001 Members of the Polish Sejm 2001–2005 Civic Platform MEPs MEPs for Poland 2004–2009 Political corruption Corruption in Poland People named in the Panama Papers