Waldemar Pawlak

Infobox Officeholder
name = Waldemar Pawlak


imagesize = 100px
small

caption =
order = Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
4th Prime Minister of the Third Republic
term_start = June 5, 1992
term_end = July 10, 1992
vicepresident =
viceprimeminister =
deputy =
president = Lech Wałęsa
primeminister =
predecessor = Jan Olszewski
successor = Hanna Suchocka
order2 = Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
6th Prime Minister of the Third Republic
term_start2 = October 26, 1993
term_end2 = March 6, 1995
vicepresident2 =
viceprimeminister2 = Marek Borowski
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz
deputy2 =
president2 = Lech Wałęsa
primeminister2 =
predecessor2 = Hanna Suchocka
successor2 = Józef Oleksy
order3 = Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
term_start3 = November 16, 2007
Along with Grzegorz Schetyna
term_end3 =
vicepresident3 =
viceprimeminister3 =
deputy3 =
president3 =
primeminister3 = Donald Tusk
predecessor3 = Zyta Gilowska
Przemysław Gosiewski
successor3 =
order4 = Minister of Economy of the Republic of Poland
term_start4 = November 16, 2007
term_end4 =
vicepresident4 =
viceprimeminister4 =
deputy4 = Adam Szejnfeld
president4 = Lech Kaczyński
primeminister4 = Donald Tusk
predecessor4 = Piotr Woźniak
successor4 =
order5 = 2nd President of the Polish People's Party
term_start5 = 1991
term_end5 = 1997
predecessor5 = Roman Bartoszcze
successor5 = Jarosław Kalinowski
order6 = 5th President of the Polish People's Party
term_start6 = 29 January 2005
term_end6 =
predecessor6 = Janusz Wojciechowski
successor6 =
order7 = Sejm Member from 16th district
Masovian Voivodeship
term_start7 = June 28, 1989
term_end7 =
predecessor7 =
successor7 =
birth_date = birth date and age|1959|09|5
birth_place = Model, People's Republic of Poland
death_date =
death_place =
constituency =
party = Polish People's Party
spouse =
profession = Mechanician, farmer, teacher
religion = Atheist


footnotes =

Waldemar Pawlak (pronounced|valˈdɛmar ˈpavlak, born 5 September, 1959) is a Polish politician. He twice served as Prime Minister of Poland, briefly in 1992 and again from 1993 to 1995. Since November 2007, he has been Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy. Pawlak is the only person who held the office of Prime Minister twice during the Third Republic (i.e. since 1989), and he remains Poland's youngest Prime Minister ever.

He is also a longtime commander of the Polish Volunteer fire department, holding the rank of Brigade General.

Early life and early political career

Pawlak was born in village of Model in the Masovian Voivodeship. He is a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology. While he was a student and during martial law he actively participated in strikes.

After graduation (1984) he became a computer teacher in Pacyna.

His political career began in 1985, when he joined the United People's Party. After 1990, like many UPS members, he joined the successor to UPS, the Polish People's Party.

He was elected from UPS office to the Contract Sejm (1989) and remains a Sejm member today. He became a leader ("Prezes") of the PPP in 1991.

First Premiership

His first premiership (June 5 - July 7, 1992) was the briefest government during this period, lasting only 33 days [ [http://www.premier.gov.pl/english/s.php?id=773 www.premier.gov.pl :: Prime Ministers ] ] . This was, however, a notable period, known commonly as "Pawlak's 33 days" ("33 dni Pawlaka") [People of the Year, "Polityka", December 27, 2007] .

After the downfall of Jan Olszewski's cabinet, Pawlak, a leader of the agrarian Polish People's Party, was named the new Prime Minister by President Lech Wałęsa with the mission to form a new coalition government including agrarians, christian democrats and liberals [People of the Year, "Polityka", December 27, 2007] .

However, the Pawlak government failed to gain support from the Sejm majority and failed in a vote of confidence. Pawlak resigned, and the president replaced him with Hanna Suchocka, who won majority support.

Pawlak's first premiership was and is widely viewed as a caretaker administration, serving to give the new coalition time to form the next government in the wake of political disturbance resulting from the fall of the Olszewski government [People of the Year, "Polityka", December 27, 2007] .

Because the cabinet did not receive support from the Sejm, at this time Pawlak had no official ministers, only temporary chiefs of executive branches [ [http://www.premier.gov.pl/s.php?id=474 www.premier.gov.pl :: Składy Rady Ministrów w latach 1989 - 2006 ] ] .

econd Premiership

The Polish People's Party and the social democratic, post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) won the 1993 election in a landslide, holding a super-majority and the support of the socialist-agrarian government, with Pawlak as Prime Minister again.

Józef Oleksy of the SLD became Sejm Marshal, while SLD leader Aleksander Kwaśniewski remained a Sejm Member without portfolio.

Pawlak made headlines when he chose Ewa Wachowicz (Miss Polonia) as his press secretary.

Prime Minister Pawlak and Kwaśniewski soon found themselves at bitter political odds. Kwaśniewski reportedly had an ambition to became "Prime Minister de facto", while Pawlak wanted to retain the power of his office. Both leaders used their parties to fight for power [Agnieszka Chruścińska, "Kwaśniewski jestem", 1995] .

Pawlak was initially in an informal alliance with President Wałęsa against the SLD. However, their good political relations soon dissipated [Agnieszka Chruścińska, "Kwaśniewski jestem", 1995] .

In 1995 Pawlak offered three options to Kwaśniewski. First: he would remain Prime Minister but with Kwaśniewski as Deputy and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Second: the SLD would form a government with Kwaśniewski as Prime Minister. Third: Oleksy would become Prime Minister under the present coalition. Pawlak reportedly thought that Kwaśniewski wouldn't risk a minority SLD government without the support of the majority or the elevation of his main partisan opponent, Oleksy, to Prime Minister and would rather choose being the deputy of Pawlak. However Kwaśniewski surprised many by choosing the third option [Agnieszka Chruścińska, "Kwaśniewski jestem", 1995] .

In the Political Wilderness

Despite good public approval ratings Pawlak failed in his bid for the Presidency in 1995, finishing a distant fifth (after Kwaśniewski, Wałęsa, Jacek Kuroń and Jan Olszewski) and winning only 770,417 votes (4.31%).

After losing the political battle with Kwaśniewski and, after that, the Presidential election, there was a movement to replace Pawlak with Jarosław Kalinowski as party leader in 1997 [People of the Year, "Polityka", December 27, 2007] .

PLS suffered a great political disaster during the 1997 parliamentary elections and became the smallest party in the Sejm (from 132 seats in 1993 to just 27).

After this Pawlak for nearly decade kept low-level political and public positions. Although he continued to serve (since 1989) as a Sejm Member, he concentrated rather on his work as a firefighter.

After the SLD won decisively 2001 parliamentary election Kalinowski became deputy of the new Prime Minister Leszek Miller, after the PSL joined the coalition. Pawlak did not play a major role during this period.

Comeback

Pawlak's comeback began in 2005 when he became PSL leader again.

Currently, in the new liberal Civic Platform (PO)-PSL government, formed after the Polish parliamentary election, 2007 Pawlak became the first deputy prime minister and Minister of Economy under Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Although PSL is still the smallest party in the Sejm, Pawlak is often cited as having achieved a major politicial victory. During his time his party enjoyed better electoral results, the elimination of major opposition among voters from the agrarian party (Samoobrona), and the resumption of major influence in rural ares and with the Tusk cabinet (three portfolios). (Without the PSL votes, the PO would not have a majority, even though it is the biggest party.) [People of the Year, "Polityka", December 27, 2007] .

=Personal life and public

Pawlak was for many years criticized for his stiff personality (he was called "Cyborg Prime Minister"). However, these criticisms have recently diminished [People of the Year, "Polityka", December 27, 2007] .

Pawlak is married and has children. However, rumors of his womanizing have persisted for many years. His wife, Elżbieta, is thus sometimes called "Pawlak's formal wife". [People of the Year, "Polityka", December 27, 2007] .

econd Waldemar Pawlak cabinet

Members of Pawlak's cabinet:
* Prime Minister: Waldemar Pawlak (PSL)
* Deputy PM and Minister of Finance: Marek Borowski (SLD)
* Deputy PM and Minister of Justice: Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (SLD)
* Deputy PM and Minister of Education: Aleksander Łuczak (PSL)
* Minister of Construction: Barbara Blida (SLD)
* Minister of Culture: Kazimierz Dejmek (PSL)
* Minister of Property Conversion: Wiesław Kaczmarek (SLD)
* Minister of Defense: Piotr Kołodziejczyk
* Minister of Transport: Bogusław Liberadzki (SLD)
* Minister of Interior: Andrzej Milczanowski
* Minister of Labor: Leszek Miller (SLD)
* Minister of Foreign Affairs: Andrzej Olechowski
* Director of the CUP (Central Planning Office): Mirosław Pietrewicz (PSL)
* Minister of Economic Cooperation with Foreign Business: Lesław Podkański (PSL)
* Minister of Industry and Trade: Marek Pol (UP)
* Director of the URM (the Cabinet Office): Michał Strąk (PSL)
* Minister of Agriculture: Andrzej Śmietanko (PSL)
* Minister of Communications: Andrzej Zieliński (PSL)
* Minister of Environment Preservation: Andrzej Żelichowski (SLD)
* Minister of Health: Ryszard Żochowski (SLD)
* President of the Committee for Scientific Research: Witold Karczewski

External links

* [http://waldemarpawlak.blog.onet.pl/ Waldemar Pawlak's blog]

References