- Maciej Giertych
Maciej Marian Giertych (born
March 24 1936 inWarsaw ) is a Polish social conservative politician of theLeague of Polish Families (LPR). He favours state intervention in the economy. He was a member of theSejm (between 2001 and 2004) and a current Polish member of theEuropean Parliament (since 2004). He was a candidate in the 2005 Polish presidential elections, but withdrew from the race because of low vote results (circa 3%).Biography
Maciej Giertych was born
March 24 ,1936 inWarsaw , to a notable politician of the nationalist National Democracy movementJędrzej Giertych . In late 1945 his family left Poland for post-war Germany's British zone and finally settled in theUnited Kingdom . In 1954 Giertych passed his final school exams and enteredOxford University . He received the BA and MA inforestry . Between 1958 and 1962 he studied at theUniversity of Toronto , where he received hisPhD for studies ontree physiology .In 1962 Giertych returned to Poland, where he completed his qualifications for an assistant professorship at the Institute of Dendrology of the
Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) inKórnik nearPoznań . In 1964 he married Antonina née Jachnik. In 1970 he received hisHabilitation degree for his studies on forestgenetics at theAgricultural University of Poznań . Since 1976 he has lectured at the Nicolaus Copernicus University ofToruń . He has also published more than 200 works and studies, mostly on forest-related topics. The same year he also became a member of the Forest Sciences Committee of the PAN. In 1981 he received the grade of "associate professor" and in 1990 of full professor.Giertych opposed communism and all forms of socialism but supported the alliance of Poland with
Russia . He criticized theSolidarity movement and supported introducingmartial law in Poland as a means of preventing Russian intervention.Fact|date=March 2007In 1986 Giertych joined the advisory council (Rada Konsultacyjna) made up of opposition members and party officials set up by the leader of the communist authorities,
Wojciech Jaruzelski . The council included several prominent Poles such asMarek Kotański ,Krzysztof Skubiszewski and Kazimierz Dejmek, but also leading members of the communist party. That same year, he also became the Polish representative to the International Union of Forest Research Organisations. He supported strengthening ties with theSoviet Union in accordance withRoman Dmowski 's ideology, while criticizing some dissidents for working too closely with western politicians, which he believed would jeopardize Poland's western borders.After the fall of communist rule in Poland in 1990, he Giertych continued his scientific work; between 1993 and 2000 he was an advisor to the Ministry of Environmental Affairs. In 1990 he was a member of one of the minor political parties, the National Party of Poland ("Stronnictwo Narodowe"), which eventually entered the
League of Polish Families (LPR) coalition.On
September 23 ,2001 , Giertych was elected to the Polish Parliament from a Poznań constituency. OnJune 16 ,2004 , he became a Member of theEuropean Parliament for the LPR. Together with the rest of his party he sits as a Non-attached Member.Giertych comes from a famous Polish nationalist political family: he is the grandson of Franciszek Giertych and son ofJędrzej Giertych , and father ofRoman Giertych , who currently leads the LPR.Political views
Maciej Giertych opposed lifting the ban on purchase of land in Poland by foreigners (due to fears of resurgence of German colonialism),
homosexuality andmoral relativism . He criticized and opposed Poland's entry into theEuropean Union . He has supported closer ties withEastern Europe an countries (especiallyRussia ), as well as defending Polish industry against what he regards as the unfair practices of western companies. He is also against the proposedEuropean Constitution . In general the views of Maciej Giertych are in line with the ideology ofRadio Maryja , a media group and political-religious channel of conservative parties in Poland.In the
European Parliament , onJuly 4 ,2006 , Giertych opposed the negative view of Spanish Nationalists' uprising lead byFrancisco Franco that brought about theSpanish Civil War , stating that " [t] he fact that Communism did not take root in the West is largely thanks to the victorious civil war fought by traditional Spain against Communist governments."Martin Schulz , GermanSPD politician, cried out: "Nazi!" after Giertych's address Fact|date=January 2007. During his discourse Giertych however had explicitly condemned National Socialism and insistedMussolini andHitler also had an "atheistic and socialistic taste about them". He also praisedAntonio Salazar andEamon de Valera in the same address to the European Parliament.In February 2007, Giertych sparked outrage among European Union officials and Jewish organizations by publishing a brochure called " [http://giertych.pl/ksiazka2/Civilisations_at_war.pdf Civilizations at war in Europe] " that claimed that Jews "are biolgically different" and "create their own ghettos" because they supposedly prefer to separate themselves from others. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/827423.html Polish EU legislator's anti-Semitic booklet sparks outrage - Haaretz - Israel News ] ] . A number of journalists and certain Jewish organizations considered the brochure to be anti-Semitic.
During the
European Parliament 's session on 14 March 2007, Parliament's President [ [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/president/defaulten.htm?press_releases The President of the European Parliament ] ]Hans-Gert Pöttering reprimanded Maciej Giertych for the content of his pamphlet in accordance with Rule 147 of the EP's Rules of Procedure. He said that the publication was "a serious breach of fundamental rights and, in particular, the dignity of human beings to which our institution so strongly adheres". Mr Pöttering dissociated the Parliament from the work saying that it had made no financial contribution to its publication. Several members of the Parliament have joined with theEuropean Jewish Congress in calling for an investigation of the publishing of the pamphlet and whether Parliament funds were involved. "Dateline World Jewry", April 2007,World Jewish Congress ]Creationist views
Giertych supports a version of
creationism that attributes the creation of the universe, life, and its further development to an act of God's will. He is an honorary member of theDaylight Origins Society , a creationist organisation based in theUnited Kingdom .In his foreword to Gerard Keane's 1999 book "Creation Rediscovered", Giertych documented how his views changed from assuming
evolution is true to being skeptical of it.cite web
url= [http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/creation/gjkeane/foreword.html
title=Creation Rediscovered, by Gerard J. Keane; Foreword by Professor Maciej Giertych
author =Maciej Giertych
publisher=TAN Books & Publishers, Rockford, IL
date=1999
accessdate=2008-09-08]In 2006, Giertych rebutted the accusation [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/444265d.html] that he advocated teaching creationism in schools. He stated, "I am a scientist — a population geneticist with a degree from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of Toronto — and I am critical of the theory of evolution as a scientist, with no religious connotation." [ cite web
title=Creationism, evolution: nothing has been proved
author=Maciej Giertych
url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/444265d
publisher=Nature 444, 265
date=15 November 2006
accessdate=2008-09-08]As a skeptic, Giertych refers to what he called the "growing evidence against evolution." [http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/1797] Verify credibility|date=September 2008 Giertych asserts that his
genetics studies led him to examine the claims that evolution is supported by genetics and found them wanting. [http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/1711] Verify credibility|date=September 2008On October 11, 2006, Giertych introduced and moderated a pro-creationist seminar held in
Brussels for members of the European Parliament; The title of the presentation was "Teaching evolutionary theory in Europe. Is your child being indoctrinated in the classroom?" This seminar resulted in negative attention being drawn to Giertych (and to the Daylight Origins SocietySyn|date=September 2008) in an anti-creationist report of theNational Center for Science Education cite web |title = Devolution and Dinosaurs, The Anti-Evolution Seminar in the European Parliament |date= 2006 |url= http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/rncse_content/vol26/6633_devolution_and_dinosaurs_the__12_30_1899.asp |author= Ulirch Kutschera |publisher =National Center for Science Education |accessdate= 2008-09-07] as well as inNature , a weekly British science journal. cite web | title= A timely wake-up call as anti-evolutionists publicize their views | author= Ulrich Kutschera |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7120/full/444679a.html | date= 2006-12-07| publisher=Nature International Weekly Journal of Science| accessdate = 2008-09-07]ee also
*
Polish presidential election, 2005
*Radio Maryja
*antisemitism
* [http://dakowski.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=49 Civilisations at war in Europe]References
External links
* [http://giertych.pl/ personal website] (Polish & English)
* [http://www.lpr.pl/ League of Polish Families] (Polish)
* [http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=416 Maciej Giertych – "Poland above all!"]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20060704+ITEM-004+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN&query=INTERV&detail=2-016 Maciej Giertych – Speech in European Parliament, 4 July 2006, about the Spanish Civil War]
* [http://www.researchintelligentdesign.org/wiki/Skeptics Skeptics: scientists who are skeptical of the claims of Darwinism, abiogenesis or macroevolution]
* Nature 444, 406-407 (23 November 2006) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/444406a; Published online 22 November 2006: Anti-evolutionists raise their profile in Europe
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