Waldemar Tomaszewski (former spelling ''Valdemar Tomaševski'', born 3 March 1965) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

-Lithuanian politician who is also an activist for the Polish minority in Lithuania and

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP). Leader of the

Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated s ...

(LLRA), Tomaszewski has been an MEP since 2009. He sits in the

European Conservatives and Reformists European Conservatives and Reformists may refer to: *European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR Party), a soft Eurosceptic European political party *European Conservatives and Reformists Group The European Conservatives and Reformists ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

, of which he is a Member of the Bureau on the group executive.

Biography

Tomaszewski studied mechanics at the Vilnius Civil Engineering Institute (now

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH) is a public university located in Vilnius, Lithuania. There are 10 faculties including Antanas Gustaitis Aviation Institute, Architecture, Business Management, Civil Engineering, Creative ...

) in 1983 and graduated in 1990. First elected to Vilnius district council for Electoral Action in 1995, Tomaszewski was elected President of LLRaL in 1999. He was first elected to the

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas ( ; ), is the unicameralism, unicameral legislative body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of Government of Lithuania, govern ...

at the 2000 election, winning 51% of the vote in the single-seat constituency of

Šalčininkai Šalčininkai (; ; ''Solechnik''; ) is a City (Lithuania), city in Vilnius County, in south-eastern Lithuania, situated south-east of Vilnius, near the border with Belarus. Etymology The name of the city derives from Šalčia river, ''šalta'' ...

. In the same year, he became deputy mayor of Vilnius district, serving from 2000 to 2003. Finding himself as one of only two LLRA members in the Seimas, during the parliamentary term, he moved between factions, including

Homeland Union The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (, TS–LKD), also colloquially known as the Conservatives (), is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 members and 28 of 141 seats in the Seimas. Its current leader ...

and

Order and Justice Order and Justice (, TT), formerly the Liberal Democratic Party (''Liberalų Demokratų Partija'', LDP) was a right-wing national-conservative political party in Lithuania that self-identified as " left-of-centre", at least on economic matters. It ...

. Tomaszewski was re-elected to the Seimas in 2004 with 63% of the vote: one of five candidates in the country elected in the first round. He was re-elected again at the 2008 election, winning 61% of the vote: eight times his nearest competitor's share. In the May 2009 presidential election, he became the first presidential candidate nominated by LLRA. Receiving 4.7% of the national vote, Tomaszewski finished fourth, with

Dalia Grybauskaitė Dalia Grybauskaitė (; born 1 March 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth president of Lithuania from 2009 to 2019. She is the first and so far only woman to hold the position and in 2014 she became the first President of Li ...

winning comfortably. The following month, he stood for

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

to 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 ...

. Winning 8.4% of the vote, up from 5.7% in 2004, LLRA won its first ever MEP, with Tomaszewski topping the list and being elected. He joined the

, and was appointed to the group's bureau. He was reelected for next terms in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. He has been awarded the Commander's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland () is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident abroad. As such, it is sometimes referred to as ...

Footnotes

External links

*
Profile at European Parliament website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomaszewski, Waldemar 1965 births Living people Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance MEPs Lithuanian people of Polish descent Members of the Seimas MEPs for Lithuania 2009–2014 MEPs for Lithuania 2014–2019 MEPs for Lithuania 2019–2024 Politicians from Vilnius Vilnius Gediminas Technical University alumni MEPs for Lithuania 2024–2029

Biography

See also

Footnotes

External links