Roman Giertych

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Roman Giertych

Roman Giertych (born 27 February 1971 in Śrem, Poland) is a Polish politician, Deputy Prime Minister and, since May 5, 2006, Minister of Education. He is also currently a member of Sejm, lower house of the Polish parliament (elected in 2001), and chairman of League of Polish Families party.

1 Biography
2 Attitude towards homosexuality
3 Attitude towards German minority
4 BBC Boycot
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Biography

Roman Giertych comes from a prominent family of Polish politicians, being a son of Maciej Giertych and a grandson of Jędrzej Giertych.

According to his brother (holding a PhD. himself), he was a young bookworm who devoured dozens of books, especially on history. He excelled in history throughout his school years while his grades in other subjects remained average. His teacher of biology recalls him as militant and questioning the validity of the theory of evolution; a stance that he carried away from his family home, esp. his creationist father Maciej Giertych (a PhD in forest genetics).

He graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań with master's degrees in both law and history. In 1989, he reactivated the "All-Polish Youth" (Młodzież Wszechpolska) organization, becoming its chairman; he remains honorary chairman to this day. For several years he was a member of the National-Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne) and the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe), which merged with several other organizations to form the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) in 2001 .

Giertych and the LPR have a strong national and anti-EU profile. Prior to the 2003 Polish referendum on EU membership, the LPR campaigned vehemently against it, denouncing it as a "centralised, socialist superstate". Officially, the LPR declares to favour a "Europe of nations". Under Giertych's leadership, the LPR was successful in the European Parliament elections in June 2004, temporarily becoming the second-strongest Polish party with 14% of the votes. His father Maciej Giertych was elected MEP. In 2005 elections, though, LPR gained only 8% of the votes.

In July 2004 Roman Giertych was elected a member and vicechairman of PKN Orlen investigation commission, which is credited, among other things, with destroying presidential aspirations of Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz.

On May 5, 2006, Giertych was appointed as Minister of Education and vice-premier, while the LPR joined a governmental coalition with PiS. Due to his nationalist views, this decision was considered highly controversial by a big part of public opinion. The following day, about 100 people, mostly left-wing and anarchist activists, protested in front of the Ministry of Education against this appointment.^[1] A couple of weeks later over 140 000 people signed a petition to remove him from the post. Public opposition continues as his decisions and qualifications to lead the Ministry of Education are questioned.

[edit] Attitude towards homosexuality

At a march opposed to homosexuality on March 13, 2006 in Warsaw, Roman Giertych said, "Stop pedałowaniu!".^[2] This was a pun, literally meaning "Stop pedalling [as in riding bicycles]!", since the Polish word "pedał" has a second usage, as a colloquial and offensive name for homosexuals, derived from the word pederasty.^[3]

[edit] Attitude towards German minority

There is a German minority in present day Poland. The Polish state guarantees them cultural autonomy and representation in Parliament. Giertych demands the abolition of the privileged German representation in Polish Parliament, arguing that the allegedely larger Polish minority in Germany does not enjoy similar benefits.

[edit] BBC Boycot

On a 3.09.2006 Roman Giertych officialy said on press conference he won't talk to the BBC reporters anymore due to the material made by a BBC about pedophilia among Catholic priests.