Hanna Suchocka

Infobox Officeholder
name = Hanna Suchocka


imagesize =
small

caption =
order = Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
5^th Prime Minister of the Third Republic
term_start = July 11 1992
term_end = October 25 1993
vicepresident =
viceprimeminister = Henryk Goryszewski, Paweł Łączkowski
deputy =
president = Lech Wałęsa
primeminister =
predecessor = Waldemar Pawlak
successor = Waldemar Pawlak
order2 = Minister of Justice of the Republic of Poland
term_start2 = October 31, 1997
term_end2 = June 8, 2000
vicepresident2 =
viceprimeminister2 =
deputy2 =
president2 = Aleksander Kwaśniewski
primeminister2 = Jerzy Buzek
predecessor2 = Leszek Kubicki
successor2 = Lech Kaczyński
birth_date = birth date and age|1946|04|3
birth_place =
death_date =
death_place =
constituency =
party = Democratic Union
spouse =
profession = Lawyer
religion = Roman Catholic


footnotes =

Hanna Suchocka (IPA2|'xanna su'xɔʦka) (born 3 April, 1946 in Pleszew, Poland) is a Polish political figure. She served as the prime minister of Poland between July 11 1992 and October 26 1993 under the presidency of Lech Wałęsa. So far, she is the only woman to hold this post.

Suchocka is a specialist in Constitutional Law. She was a member of the Sejm of People's Republic of Poland in the 1980s, and became Prime Minister in 1992. She served as an anomaly in the representation of women, however, as she obtained her position partly due to her leaning to both sides of the political spectrum.

After the downfall of the Jan Olszewski cabinet on June 1992, following the exposure of a list of secret communist collaborators of Służba Bezpieczeństwa by Minister of Internal Affairs Antoni Macierewicz, her cabinet was allegedly linked to illegal persecution and disintegration of Polish conservative and independent rightist parties (so called Instruction UOP nr 0015/92).

Her left-wing leanings, accompanied by her strong anti-abortion position, made her the perfect candidate to satisfy the interests of a majority coalition in Parliament consisting of three parties including her own Democratic Union, the Christian National Union, and the Liberal Democratic Congress.

Member of the Club of Madrid. [en [http://www.clubmadrid.org The Club of Madrid] is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its Members – 66 democratic former heads of state and government.]

President Lech Walesa derailed her political career, stating, "I can't see a woman above me", and then further demeaning women by saying, "sometimes, maybe."

She has been serving as Poland's Ambassador to the Holy See since December 2001 and is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the Vatican (appointed by Pope John Paul II on 19 January 1994).

References