Grzegorz Schetyna | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Grzegorz Schetyna in 2023 | |
| Acting President of Poland | |
| In office 8 July 2010 – 6 August 2010 | |
| Prime Minister | Donald Tusk |
| Preceded by | Bogdan Borusewicz(Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Bronisław Komorowski |
| Chairman of Civic Platform | |
| In office 26 January 2016 – 29 January 2020 | |
| Secretary-General | Stanisław Gawłowski Robert Tyszkiewicz |
| Parliamentary Leader | Sławomir Neumann Borys Budka |
| Preceded by | Ewa Kopacz |
| Succeeded by | Borys Budka |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 22 September 2014 – 16 November 2015 | |
| Prime Minister | Ewa Kopacz |
| Deputy | Rafał Trzaskowski |
| Preceded by | Radosław Sikorski |
| Succeeded by | Witold Waszczykowski |
| Marshal of the Sejm | |
| In office 8 July 2010 – 8 November 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Bronisław Komorowski |
| Succeeded by | Ewa Kopacz |
| Parliamentary Leader of Civic Platform | |
| In office 9 October 2009 – 22 July 2010 | |
| Leader | Donald Tusk |
| Preceded by | Grzegorz Dolniak(Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Tomasz Tomczykiewicz |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Poland | |
| In office 16 November 2007 – 13 October 2009 | |
| Prime Minister | Donald Tusk |
| Preceded by | Przemysław Gosiewski |
| Succeeded by | Waldemar Pawlak |
| Minister of the Interior and Administration | |
| In office 16 November 2007 – 13 October 2009 | |
| Prime Minister | Donald Tusk |
| Preceded by | Władysław Stasiak |
| Succeeded by | Jerzy Miller |
| Member of the Sejm | |
| Assumed office 25 September 2005 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Grzegorz Juliusz Schetyna (1963-02-18)18 February 1963 (age 62) Opole,Poland |
| Political party | Civic Platform |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal Democratic Congress(1991–1994) Freedom Union(1994–2001) |
| Spouse | Kalina Rowińska-Schetyna |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | University of Wrocław |
Grzegorz Juliusz Schetyna (Polish pronunciation:[ˈɡʐɛɡɔʂsxɛˈtɨna]ⓘ; born 18 February 1963) is a Polish politician who has beenLeader of Civic Platform andLeader of the Opposition from 26 January 2016 to 25 January 2020. He has served asMinister of Foreign Affairs of Poland from 2014 to 2015,Marshal of the Sejm from 2010 to 2011,Acting President of Poland 2010,Deputy Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2009 andMinister of the Interior and Administration 2007 to 2009. He has been aMember of the Sejm from 1997.
In the early 1990s, Schetyna co-founded a commercial broadcaster,Radio Eska, and chaired theŚląsk Wrocław basketball team in 1994–97.[1]
In the late 1980s, Schetyna headed theUniversity of Wrocław’s branch of the Independent Students’ Union, the student arm of theSolidarność (Solidarity) trade-union movement, before holding a series of posts in the Liberal-Democratic Congress and then theFreedom Union party in the 1990s, along withDonald Tusk and several other key figures in Polish politics.[2] When Tusk co-founded Civic Platform in 2001, Schetyna became secretary-general.[3]
Schetyna was first elected to theSejm as a candidate of the Freedom Union in thenational elections on 21 September 1997 after receiving 13 013 (3,17%) in 50Wrocław district. Following the2007 parliamentary election, he served asDeputy Prime Minister andMinister of Internal Affairs and Administration underPrime MinisterDonald Tusk. As interior minister, he championed the badly needed renovation of provincial roads in Poland. In a 2009 cabinet reshuffle,[4] he left the government abruptly amid tensions between his faction within the ruling Civic Platform party and Tusk.[5]
Schetyna was also a member ofSejm 1997–2001,Sejm 2001–2005,Sejm 2005–2007,Sejm 2007–2011.
After stepping down, he moved to the post of head of the Civic Platform Sejm caucus.
FollowingBronisław Komorowski's victory in the2010 presidential election, Schetyna was nominated as the Civic Platform's candidate to succeed thePresident-elect as theMarshal of the Sejm.[6]
On 8 July he was elected Marshal of the Sejm and thus assumed the post of theActing President of Poland. Schetyna served as the interim head of state until Komorowski's inauguration on 6 August 2010.[7]
Schetyna ceased beingSejm Marshal on 8 November 2011;Ewa Kopacz replaced him and later took his job as the Civic Platform's first deputy leader.[8]
Between 2011 and 2014, Schetyna served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[9] Shortly after thereferendum on the status ofCrimea held on 16 March 2014, he and his counterparts of theWeimar Triangle parliaments –Elisabeth Guigou ofFrance andNorbert Röttgen ofGermany – visited Kyiv to express their countries’ firm support of the territorial integrity and the European integration ofUkraine.[10] This was the first time that parliamentarians of the Weimar Triangle had ever made a joint trip to a third country.[11]
During Tusk's seven years in power, Schetyna tried several times to challenge him but was sidelined.[12] By 2014, news media reported about increased rivalry and tension between him and Tusk.
When Tusk stepped down from his position in September 2014 to become thePresident of the European Council, Schetyna announced he would run for leadership of the Civic Platform. This was widely seen as a direct challenge to incoming Prime MinisterEwa Kopacz, as by tradition the prime minister is also party leader.[13]
For domestic political reasons Kopacz therefore decided to replace Foreign MinisterRadosław Sikorski with Schetyna.[14] Unlike his predecessor in the job, Schetyna was unknown outside Poland at the time.[15] Upon taking office, Kopacz ordered him to redraft Poland's foreign policy urgently and present it to parliament.[16]
In February 2015, Schetyna announced that Poland would be the first country to pay damages for participating in the USCentral Intelligence Agency’s secret rendition program after it was found to have hosted a facility used for illegal rendition and interrogation. In doing so, Poland followed a ruling of theEuropean Court of Human Rights ordering it to pay former detaineesAbd al-Rahim al-Nashiri andAbu Zubaydah.[17]
In September 2015, Schetyna summoned the Russian ambassador to Poland,Sergey Andreyev, after the ambassador, in an interview aired by private broadcasterTVN24, said Poland was partly responsible forNazi Germanyinvading in 1939 because it had repeatedly blocked the formation of a coalition against Berlin in the run-up to the conflict.
As Civic Platform chairman, Schetyna and the party’s other lawmakers occupied the main hall in parliament from mid-December 2016 and mid-January 2017 over the ruling PiS party’s plans to limit media access and a vote on the budget which the Civic Platform said was held illegally.[18] He also led the party’s campaign for the2019 European Parliament election by warning that the ruling eurosceptic PiS party could eventually lead the country out of the EU.
Ahead of the2019 national elections, Schetyna led his party’s move to join forces with two small, liberal groupings[19] and announcedMałgorzata Kidawa-Błońska as their candidate for prime minister.[20]
In January 2020, Schetyna announced that he won't stand in the2020 Civic Platform leadership election and endorsedTomasz Siemoniak. On 25 January 2020 his successor,Borys Budka, was elected.[21][22]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of the Interior and Administration 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Acting President of Poland 2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Marshal of the Sejm 2010–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 2014–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of theCivic Platform in theSejm 2009–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of theCivic Platform 2016-2020 | Succeeded by |
| Interior (1990–1996) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Interior and administration (1997–2011) | ||
| Interior (2011–2015) | ||
| Interior and administration (2015–) | ||
| Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Republic of Poland (1918–1939) | ||
| Polish government-in-exile (1939–1990) | ||
| Polish People's Republic (1944–1989) | ||
| Republic of Poland (1990–present) | ||
*Acting | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
