Andrzej Lepper

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Andrzej

Andrzej Zbigniew Lepper (13 June 1954 – 5 August 2011) was a Polish politician, farmer, and trade unionist who led the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, an agrarian populist party that, between 2005 and 2007, was the third-largest political party in Poland; in 2006, he briefly formed a coalition government alongside the ruling Law and Justice party, serving in the roles of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. He also served as Deputy Marshal of the Sejm in 2001 and from 2005 to 2006. Considered a far-leftist, Lepper was heavily critical of capitalism and heavily integrated Catholic social teaching into his rhetoric; he thought positively of the Polish People's Republic. He led numerous farmers' protests; his supporters were known to frequently block roads. First rising to political notability in the early 1990s following his establishment of Self-Defence in 1992, he was elected to first political office, a seat in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship Sejmik, in 1998, being elected to the Sejm in 2001 and later removed from office in 2007. During this time, he ran for the office of President four times, in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. After he was unelected, Lepper lost much of his political…Citește mai mult

Andrzej Lepper a adăugat o fotografie

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Andrzej

Early life Lepper was born in Stowięcino, a tiny hamlet of roughly 200 people. Formerly a thriving community, it became a place of socio-cultural impoverishment and economic struggle since Poland's transformation into a market-based economy. During this transition period his farm, like most small businesses in Poland, found itself on the verge of bankruptcy but survived. A farmer by trade, Lepper completed all coursework required at the State Agricultural Technical School in Sypniewo, yet did not undertake the final qualifying exam. He also had no formal higher education but was presented with several doctor honoris causa awards, including by the University of Kyiv (Ukraine) in recognition of his work, commitment and outreach. Lepper was married and, together with his wife Irena, had three children.

Andrzej Lepper a adăugat o fotografie

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Andrzej

Political career For two years (1978–1980), he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), Poland's equivalent of a formal communist party during the Polish People's Republic (PRL; 1947–1989). In 1992 Lepper formed his own political party, an organisation of economically struggling farmers like himself, naming it Samoobrona (lit. 'self-defence'; SO). The first time Lepper rose to a position of political leadership was in the summer of 1991, when he organised and led a farmer protest movement against the disastrous economic conditions in Polish agriculture and lack of state assistance to those impoverished by the ongoing capitalist transition. Already back then, Lepper was considering proposing an alternative economic system to the capitalist one. The voivodeships of Zamość and Koszalin became important centres of mobilisations around the issue of rural poverty and over-indebtedness. In Zamość, a protest committee was founded on 10 July, while on 27 July, the first iteration of Samoobrona, the Communal Agricultural Self-Defence Committee (Polish: Gminny Komitet Samoobrony Rolnictwa), was founded in Lepper's home village of Darłowo. Rural protests quickly spread and attracted the attention and support of major rural trade unions, such as the Rural Solidarity. The regional president of Rural Solidarity in West Pomerania,…Citește mai mult

Andrzej Lepper a adăugat o fotografie

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Andrzej

Political style and views Samoobrona (SRP) and Lepper successfully tapped into the disillusionment felt by millions of poor citizens who had not benefited from Poland's transition to capitalism and entry into the European Union. Lepper presented himself and his party as "the only one in Poland, which speaks in the name of all people" and made it his goal to "defend poor and unemployed people, honest and enterprising, but disadvantaged by the economic system". Lepper embodied the public discontent and social costs of the Balcerowicz Plan, an economic plan drafted by Jeffrey Sachs that dissolved the socialist planned economy in Poland in favour of a neoliberal market economy. This was achieved at the price of massive unemployment, layoffs and a 40% decline in real wages, as well as a large expansion of income inequality and slashed welfare. Polish political scientist Jarosław Tomasiewicz notes that Lepper showed that while internationally the Polish capitalist transformation was celebrated as successful, in reality it "took place against a backdrop of repression of the workers, kidnappings and arrests of trade unionists, violent clashes with protesters or a mass exodus of desperate workers". Lepper's popularity only grew even as the plan brought economic growth by 2000,…Citește mai mult

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Criminal charges Lepper was charged with criminal offences, including assault, blocking roads and dumping grain on railroad tracks in the course of anti-government demonstrations (The New York Times, 2006). In May 2001, Lepper was sentenced to sixteen months in prison. In May 2006, Polish students protested against the coalition government and also mocked Lepper's recent criminal conviction for slander, chanting "Lepper to prison". As of 2007, Lepper faced criminal charges for slander and levelling corruption accusations against ministers and members of parliament (Financial Times, 2002). In December 2006, a female party member claimed that Lepper and party deputy Stanisław Łyżwiński had demanded sexual favours in exchange for a job in a regional Samoobrona party office. After the publication of these claims in the Gazeta Wyborcza, several other women came forward with similar accusations. Poland's chief prosecutor, Janusz Kaczmarek, later launched an investigation into the abuse allegations against both men. In February 2010, Andrzej Lepper was sentenced to two years and three months in jail after being found guilty of demanding and accepting sexual favours from female members of his Samoobrona party. The district court in central Poland also sentenced former Samoobrona party deputy Stanisław Łyżwiński to five years for rape…Citește mai mult

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Fall, death, and controversy On 9 July 2007, Prime Minister Kaczyński dismissed Lepper from the government, which Kaczyński said was due to suspicions that Lepper was involved in corruption. On 10 July, Lepper said that Samoobrona would withdraw from the ruling coalition but later on the same day said that the party would remain in the coalition conditionally. Lepper claimed to have been the victim of a politically motivated sting operation, initiated by Kaczynski and PiS, and he demanded that a parliamentary inquiry be conducted to investigate the legality and motivation of the Central Anticorruption Bureau operation mounted against him. This was one of the conditions put to PiS in return for Samoobrona remaining within the coalition. On 16 July 2007, Lepper, together with Roman Giertych, chairman of another junior coalition partner, League of Polish Families, announced a merger of their parties, to be called League and Self-Defence (LiS). On August 5, the party quit the ruling coalition, leaving it without a majority. Early parliamentary elections for both houses of parliament (Sejm and Senat) were held on 21 October 2007, after the Sejm voted for its own dissolution on 7 September. The party suffered huge voter backlash and failed to…Citește mai mult