Aleksander Kwasniewski
Encyclopedia
Aleksander Kwaśniewski (alɛˈksandɛr kfaɕˈɲefskʲi; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish
politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule
he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s. After the fall of communism he became a leader of the left-wing Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland
, successor to the former ruling Polish United Workers Party, and a co-founder of the Democratic Left Alliance
.
Kwaśniewski was democratically elected president in 1995, defeating the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa
. He was re-elected to a second and final term as president in 2000 in a decisive first-round victory. His term ended on 23 December 2005, when he handed over power to his elected successor, conservative Lech Kaczyński
.
In 1979 he married lawyer Jolanta Kwaśniewska
(née Konty). Together they have one daughter, Aleksandra Kwaśniewska, who was born in 1981.
Kwaśniewski identifies himself as an atheist.
He became politically active at this time, and joined the ruling communist Polish United Workers' Party
(PZPR) in 1977, remaining a member until it was dissolved in 1990. An activist in the communist student movement until 1982, he held, among other positions, the chairmanship of the University Council of the Socialist Union of Polish Students (SZSP) from 1976 to 1977 and the vice-chairmanship of the Gdańsk Voivodship Union from 1977 to 1979. Kwaśniewski was a member of the SZSP supreme authorities from 1977 to 1982. From November 1981 to February 1984 he was the editor-in-chief of the communist controlled student weekly ITD, then editor-in-chief of the daily communist youth Sztandar Młodych from 1984 to 1985. He was a co-founder of the first computer-science periodical in Poland, Bajtek, in 1985.
From 1985 to 1987, Kwaśniewski was Minister for Youth Affairs in the Zbigniew Messner
government, and then Chairman of the Committee for Youth and Physical Culture till June 1990. He joined the government of Mieczysław Rakowski, first as a cabinet minister and then as chairman of the government Social-Political Committee from October 1988 to September 1989. A participant in the Round-Table negotiations
, he co-chaired the task group for trade-union pluralism with Tadeusz Mazowiecki
and Romuald Sosnowski. As the PZPR was wound up, he became a founding member of the post-communist Social Democratic Party
of the Republic of Poland (SdRP) from January to February 1990, and its first chairman until he assumed the presidency in December 1995. He was also one of the founding members of the coalition Democratic Left Alliance
(SLD) in 1991.
Kwaśniewski was an activist in the Student Sports Union from 1975 to 1979 and the Polish Olympic Committee
(PKOL); he later served as PKOL president from 1988 to 1991.
from the Warsaw
constituency in 1991, he won the largest number of votes (148,533), although not an absolute majority. Kwaśniewski headed the parliamentary caucus of the Democratic Left Alliance in his first and second terms (1991–1995). He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly from November 1993 to November 1995.
, against 48.3 percent for the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa
, the former Solidarity leader. Kwaśniewski's campaign slogans were "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość) and "A Poland for all" (Wspólna Polska). Political opponents disputed his victory, and produced evidence to show that he had lied about his education in registration documents and public presentations. There was also some mystery over his graduation from university. A law court confirmed that Kwaśniewski had lied about his record - and this did not come to light until after the election - but did not penalise him for it, judging the information irrelevant to the election result, even though receiving only 1.7% less votes would have changed the result, and Wałęsa's publicly-known lack of higher education was always considered as counting against him.
Kwaśniewski took the presidential oath of office
on 23 December 1995. Later the same day, he was sworn in as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces at the Warszawa First Fighter Wing, in Mińsk Mazowiecki
.
Despite the deep polarization brought about by his election, and opposition fears that a Kwaśniewski presidency would signal a return to communism, these fears proved groundless and he proved a reasonably popular and pro-Western leader. His political course resembled that of Wałęsa's in several key respects, such as the pursuit of closer ties to the European Union
and NATO. Kwaśniewski also continued the transition to a market economy
and the privatization
of state-owned enterprises, although with less energy than his predecessor. Hoping to be seen as "the president of all Poles", including his political opponents, he quit the Social Democratic Party after election. Later, he formed a coalition with the rightist government of Jerzy Buzek
with few major conflicts and on several occasions he stood against movements of the Democratic Left Alliance
government of Leszek Miller
. At one moment, support for Kwaśniewski reached as high as 80% in popularity polls; most of the time it was over 50%.
In 1997 Polish newspaper Zycie reported that Kwaśniewski had met former KGB officer Vladimir Alganov
at the Baltic sea resort Cetniewo in 1994. First Kwaśniewski denied ever meeting Alganov and filed a libel suit against the newspaper. Eventually Kwaśniewski admitted that he had met Alganov on official occasions, but denied meeting him in Cetniewo.
Kwaśniewski's greatest achievement was his ability to bring about a new Constitution of Poland
to replace the modified Stalin
ist document then still in use. The failure to create a new document had been a criticism often leveled at Wałęsa. Kwaśniewski actively campaigned for its approval in the subsequent referendum, and he signed it into law on 16 July 1997.
Kwaśniewski took an active part in the efforts to secure Polish membership of NATO. He headed Poland's delegation at the 1997 Madrid summit, where Poland, the Czech Republic
, and Hungary
were promised membership; and the Washington summit, where on 26 February 1999, during the Kosovo conflict, which he supported, he signed the instruments ratifying Poland's membership of NATO. He also took active part in promoting further enlargement of the alliance, speaking out in favor of membership for a further seven states (see Prague summit) and the open-door policy that leaves open the option of further members. He was an author of the 2002 Riga Initiative, a forum for cooperation between Central European states, aimed towards further enlargement of NATO and the European Union.
An advocate of regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, Kwaśniewski hosted a summit of the region's leaders at Łańcut in 1996. Speaking out against the danger organized crime
posed to the region, he submitted a draft of a convention on fighting organised crime to the UN in 1996. He was an active participant at meetings of regional leaders in Portorož
in 1997, Levoča
in 1998, and Lviv
and Yalta
in 1999. After a history of sometimes acrimonious relations with Lithuania
, Kwaśniewski was a driving force behind the presidential summit in Vilnius
in 1997, at which the two countries' presidents signed a treaty of friendship. Poland subsequently became one of the strongest advocates of Lithuanian membership in NATO and the European Union
and the strongest advocate of Ukraine
in Europe.
In 2000 he was re-elected in the first round of voting, collecting 53.9 percent of the vote. His election campaign slogan was: "A home for all—Poland" (Dom wszystkich—Polska). On 23 December 2000 he took office for the second term.
Following the 11 September 2001 attacks, Kwaśniewski organized an international conference in Warsaw, with participation of leaders from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe to strengthen regional activities in fighting international terrorism. Under Kwaśniewski's leadership, Poland became a strong ally of the United States in the war on terror
, and contributed troops in the Iraq war, a move that was highly controversial in Poland and Europe. Poland was in charge of a sector of Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein
.
Polish membership of the European Union
became a reality on 1 May 2004, during Kwaśniewski's second term. Both he and his wife Jolanta
had campaigned for approval of the EU accession treaty in June 2003. He strongly supported including mention of Europe's Christian roots into the European Constitution.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/04/wkwas04.xmlhttp://www.prezydent.pl/x.node?id=3666 Thanks to his close relations with Leonid Kuchma
, in late 2004 he became a mediator in a political conflict in Ukraine – the Orange Revolution
, and according to some commentators, he played the major role in its peaceful solution.
.
Another case of Kwaśniewski's controversial grant of pardon
was the Peter Vogel
case. The story goes back to 1971 when Piotr Filipczyński, a.k.a. Peter Vogel was sentenced to 25 years of jail for a brutal murder (shortened to 15 years in 1979). Surprisingly enough, in 1983 (during the martial law in Poland
) he was granted the passport and allowed to leave the country. He returned in 1990 earning soon the nickname of "the accountant of the Left" as a former Swiss banker who took care of more than thirty accounts of Polish social democrats
. Despite an arrest warrant issued in 1987, Vogel was moving freely in Poland to be eventually arrested in 1998 in Switzerland. After Vogel's extradition to Poland, in 1999 Kwaśniewski initiated the procedure of granting him amnesty. In December 2005 (a few days before leaving his office) Kwaśniewski pardoned Vogel despite the negative opinion of the procurer.
revealed that Kwaśniewski was registered during communist times as an agent "Alek" of the secret police, the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa – SB), from 1983–1989. Kwaśniewski himself denied having been an agent in a special statement, demanded from politicians by Polish law, and a court confirmed his statement.
, where, as a faculty member, he teaches students in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service about contemporary European politics, the trans-Atlantic relationship, and democratization in Central and Eastern Europe. He also teaches a course on political leadership, convened by Professor Carol Lancaster, with former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar. Additionally, Kwaśniewski belongs to the Board of Trustees of the Hertie School of Governance
in Berlin. He is also Chairman of the supervisory board of the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kiev, Ukraine.
In 2008 Aleksander Kwaśniewski became Chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation
, a not-for-profit organization established to monitor tolerance
in Europe, prepare practical recommendations to governments and international organisations on improving interreligious and interethnic relations on the continent. The organization is co-chaired by European Jewish Fund
President Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor
.
He was also awarded the highest distinction of the Polish Orthodox Church
, the Order of Saint Magdalena, first degree with decorations (1998). He also received the television "Wiktor" prizes in 1993, 1995, and 2000.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s. After the fall of communism he became a leader of the left-wing Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland
Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland
Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland was a social-democratic political party in Poland created in 1990, shortly after the Revolutions of 1989. The party was one of two successor parties to the Polish United Workers Party, the other being the Social Democratic Union. SdRP was the leading...
, successor to the former ruling Polish United Workers Party, and a co-founder of the Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as a coalition of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently the third largest opposition party in Poland....
.
Kwaśniewski was democratically elected president in 1995, defeating the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
. He was re-elected to a second and final term as president in 2000 in a decisive first-round victory. His term ended on 23 December 2005, when he handed over power to his elected successor, conservative Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
.
In 1979 he married lawyer Jolanta Kwaśniewska
Jolanta Kwaśniewska
Jolanta Kwaśniewska , née Konty is a Polish lawyer and charity activist who was First Lady of Poland between 1995 and 2005, as the wife of the then president Aleksander Kwaśniewski....
(née Konty). Together they have one daughter, Aleksandra Kwaśniewska, who was born in 1981.
Kwaśniewski identifies himself as an atheist.
1973–1991: Early political career
In the years 1973 to 1977, Aleksander Kwaśniewski studied transport economics and foreign trade at the University of Gdańsk, though he never graduated.He became politically active at this time, and joined the ruling communist Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
(PZPR) in 1977, remaining a member until it was dissolved in 1990. An activist in the communist student movement until 1982, he held, among other positions, the chairmanship of the University Council of the Socialist Union of Polish Students (SZSP) from 1976 to 1977 and the vice-chairmanship of the Gdańsk Voivodship Union from 1977 to 1979. Kwaśniewski was a member of the SZSP supreme authorities from 1977 to 1982. From November 1981 to February 1984 he was the editor-in-chief of the communist controlled student weekly ITD, then editor-in-chief of the daily communist youth Sztandar Młodych from 1984 to 1985. He was a co-founder of the first computer-science periodical in Poland, Bajtek, in 1985.
From 1985 to 1987, Kwaśniewski was Minister for Youth Affairs in the Zbigniew Messner
Zbigniew Messner
Zbigniew Messner was a Communist economist and politician in Poland. In 1972, he became Professor of Karol Adamiecki University of Economics in Katowice...
government, and then Chairman of the Committee for Youth and Physical Culture till June 1990. He joined the government of Mieczysław Rakowski, first as a cabinet minister and then as chairman of the government Social-Political Committee from October 1988 to September 1989. A participant in the Round-Table negotiations
Polish Round Table Agreement
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...
, he co-chaired the task group for trade-union pluralism with Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.-Biography:Mazowiecki comes from a Polish...
and Romuald Sosnowski. As the PZPR was wound up, he became a founding member of the post-communist Social Democratic Party
Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland
Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland was a social-democratic political party in Poland created in 1990, shortly after the Revolutions of 1989. The party was one of two successor parties to the Polish United Workers Party, the other being the Social Democratic Union. SdRP was the leading...
of the Republic of Poland (SdRP) from January to February 1990, and its first chairman until he assumed the presidency in December 1995. He was also one of the founding members of the coalition Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as a coalition of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently the third largest opposition party in Poland....
(SLD) in 1991.
Kwaśniewski was an activist in the Student Sports Union from 1975 to 1979 and the Polish Olympic Committee
Polish Olympic Committee
-List of presidents:* Stefan Lubomirski * Kazimierz Lubomirski * Kazimierz Glabisz * Alfred Loth * Włodzimierz Reczek * Bolesław Kapitan * Marian Renke * Bolesław Kapitan...
(PKOL); he later served as PKOL president from 1988 to 1991.
1991–1995: Parliamentary terms
Running for the SejmSejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
from the Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
constituency in 1991, he won the largest number of votes (148,533), although not an absolute majority. Kwaśniewski headed the parliamentary caucus of the Democratic Left Alliance in his first and second terms (1991–1995). He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly from November 1993 to November 1995.
1995–2005: Presidency
In an often bitter campaign, Aleksander Kwaśniewski won the presidential election in 1995, collecting 51.7 percent of votes in the run-offTwo-round system
The two-round system is a voting system used to elect a single winner where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate...
, against 48.3 percent for the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
, the former Solidarity leader. Kwaśniewski's campaign slogans were "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość) and "A Poland for all" (Wspólna Polska). Political opponents disputed his victory, and produced evidence to show that he had lied about his education in registration documents and public presentations. There was also some mystery over his graduation from university. A law court confirmed that Kwaśniewski had lied about his record - and this did not come to light until after the election - but did not penalise him for it, judging the information irrelevant to the election result, even though receiving only 1.7% less votes would have changed the result, and Wałęsa's publicly-known lack of higher education was always considered as counting against him.
Kwaśniewski took the presidential oath of office
Oath of office
An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before undertaking the duties of an office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are sometimes required of officers of other organizations...
on 23 December 1995. Later the same day, he was sworn in as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces at the Warszawa First Fighter Wing, in Mińsk Mazowiecki
Minsk Mazowiecki
Mińsk Mazowiecki is a town in central Poland with 38 181 inhabitants . It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship , previously in Siedlce Voivodeship...
.
Despite the deep polarization brought about by his election, and opposition fears that a Kwaśniewski presidency would signal a return to communism, these fears proved groundless and he proved a reasonably popular and pro-Western leader. His political course resembled that of Wałęsa's in several key respects, such as the pursuit of closer ties to the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and NATO. Kwaśniewski also continued the transition to a market economy
Market economy
A market economy is an economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is often contrasted with a state-directed or planned economy. Market economies can range from hypothetically pure laissez-faire variants to an assortment of real-world mixed...
and the privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
of state-owned enterprises, although with less energy than his predecessor. Hoping to be seen as "the president of all Poles", including his political opponents, he quit the Social Democratic Party after election. Later, he formed a coalition with the rightist government of Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Karol Buzek is a Polish engineer, academic lecturer and politician who was the ninth post-Cold War Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001...
with few major conflicts and on several occasions he stood against movements of the Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as a coalition of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently the third largest opposition party in Poland....
government of Leszek Miller
Leszek Miller
Leszek Cezary Miller is a Polish central-left-wing politician, leader of the Democratic Left Alliance , Prime Minister of the government of the Republic of Poland in 2001-2004.-Childhood and youth:...
. At one moment, support for Kwaśniewski reached as high as 80% in popularity polls; most of the time it was over 50%.
In 1997 Polish newspaper Zycie reported that Kwaśniewski had met former KGB officer Vladimir Alganov
Vladimir Alganov
Vladimir Alganov is a Russian spy. He was Soviet KGB officer in Warsaw, Poland in the 1980s and Russian SVR officer in the same city in the 1990s.In 1996, Poland's Prime Minister Józef Oleksy resigned because of his links to Alganov....
at the Baltic sea resort Cetniewo in 1994. First Kwaśniewski denied ever meeting Alganov and filed a libel suit against the newspaper. Eventually Kwaśniewski admitted that he had met Alganov on official occasions, but denied meeting him in Cetniewo.
Kwaśniewski's greatest achievement was his ability to bring about a new Constitution of Poland
Constitution of Poland
The current Constitution of Poland was adopted on 2 April 1997. Formally known as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland , it replaced the temporary amendments put into place in 1992 designed to reverse the effects of Communism, establishing the nation as "a democratic state ruled by law and...
to replace the modified Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
ist document then still in use. The failure to create a new document had been a criticism often leveled at Wałęsa. Kwaśniewski actively campaigned for its approval in the subsequent referendum, and he signed it into law on 16 July 1997.
Kwaśniewski took an active part in the efforts to secure Polish membership of NATO. He headed Poland's delegation at the 1997 Madrid summit, where Poland, the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
were promised membership; and the Washington summit, where on 26 February 1999, during the Kosovo conflict, which he supported, he signed the instruments ratifying Poland's membership of NATO. He also took active part in promoting further enlargement of the alliance, speaking out in favor of membership for a further seven states (see Prague summit) and the open-door policy that leaves open the option of further members. He was an author of the 2002 Riga Initiative, a forum for cooperation between Central European states, aimed towards further enlargement of NATO and the European Union.
An advocate of regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, Kwaśniewski hosted a summit of the region's leaders at Łańcut in 1996. Speaking out against the danger organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
posed to the region, he submitted a draft of a convention on fighting organised crime to the UN in 1996. He was an active participant at meetings of regional leaders in Portorož
Portorož
- External links :**...
in 1997, Levoča
Levoca
Levoča is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,600. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Renaissance church with the highest wooden altar in Europe, carved by Master Paul of Levoča, and many other Renaissance buildings.On 28 June 2009,...
in 1998, and Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
and Yalta
Yalta
Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
in 1999. After a history of sometimes acrimonious relations with Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Kwaśniewski was a driving force behind the presidential summit in Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
in 1997, at which the two countries' presidents signed a treaty of friendship. Poland subsequently became one of the strongest advocates of Lithuanian membership in NATO and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and the strongest advocate of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in Europe.
In 2000 he was re-elected in the first round of voting, collecting 53.9 percent of the vote. His election campaign slogan was: "A home for all—Poland" (Dom wszystkich—Polska). On 23 December 2000 he took office for the second term.
Following the 11 September 2001 attacks, Kwaśniewski organized an international conference in Warsaw, with participation of leaders from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe to strengthen regional activities in fighting international terrorism. Under Kwaśniewski's leadership, Poland became a strong ally of the United States in the war on terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, and contributed troops in the Iraq war, a move that was highly controversial in Poland and Europe. Poland was in charge of a sector of Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
.
Polish membership of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
became a reality on 1 May 2004, during Kwaśniewski's second term. Both he and his wife Jolanta
Jolanta Kwaśniewska
Jolanta Kwaśniewska , née Konty is a Polish lawyer and charity activist who was First Lady of Poland between 1995 and 2005, as the wife of the then president Aleksander Kwaśniewski....
had campaigned for approval of the EU accession treaty in June 2003. He strongly supported including mention of Europe's Christian roots into the European Constitution.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/04/wkwas04.xmlhttp://www.prezydent.pl/x.node?id=3666 Thanks to his close relations with Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Danylovych Kuchma was the second President of independent Ukraine from 19 July 1994, to 23 January 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival, incumbent Leonid Kravchuk...
, in late 2004 he became a mediator in a political conflict in Ukraine – the Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
, and according to some commentators, he played the major role in its peaceful solution.
Degree
In his candidate for presidency statement Kwaśniewski declared that he had graduated university studies. Actually he had never written his master thesis, nor passed the university final exams and therefore had no master degree. This came to light after the election.Controversial pardons
In December 2005 when his presidency was to end, he granted a clemency for a leftist politician Zbigniew Sobotka, who was sentenced for 3.5 years of prison for revealing a state secret (effectively, he warned gangsters about an operation against them). Kwaśniewski changed prison sentence to a probationProbation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
.
Another case of Kwaśniewski's controversial grant of pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
was the Peter Vogel
Peter Vogel (banker)
Piotr Filipczyński or Peter Vogel is a convicted Polish murderer and later banker in Switzerland.In 1971, he was sentenced to 25 years of jail for a brutal murder . Surprisingly enough, in 1983 he was granted the passport and allowed to leave the country...
case. The story goes back to 1971 when Piotr Filipczyński, a.k.a. Peter Vogel was sentenced to 25 years of jail for a brutal murder (shortened to 15 years in 1979). Surprisingly enough, in 1983 (during the martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
) he was granted the passport and allowed to leave the country. He returned in 1990 earning soon the nickname of "the accountant of the Left" as a former Swiss banker who took care of more than thirty accounts of Polish social democrats
Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as a coalition of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently the third largest opposition party in Poland....
. Despite an arrest warrant issued in 1987, Vogel was moving freely in Poland to be eventually arrested in 1998 in Switzerland. After Vogel's extradition to Poland, in 1999 Kwaśniewski initiated the procedure of granting him amnesty. In December 2005 (a few days before leaving his office) Kwaśniewski pardoned Vogel despite the negative opinion of the procurer.
Rywingate
Aleksander Kwasniewski also refused in 2003 to face a special parliamentary commission, which was set up to reveal all circumstances linked with Rywingate. Kwaśniewski argued, that the constitution did not allow parliamentary commissions to investigate the president, and there were no clear law opinions. The commission decided eventually not to summon Kwaśniewski. For a second time Kwaśniewski refused as a witness to face the commission investigating the privatizaton of Orlen petrol concern, in March 2005. He argued that the actions of commission members, being in opposition to the leftist government supported by him, were directed against him.Member of secret police allegations
In 2007, IPNInstitute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
revealed that Kwaśniewski was registered during communist times as an agent "Alek" of the secret police, the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa – SB), from 1983–1989. Kwaśniewski himself denied having been an agent in a special statement, demanded from politicians by Polish law, and a court confirmed his statement.
2006–present
On 7 March 2006, Kwaśniewski was appointed Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership at Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, where, as a faculty member, he teaches students in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service about contemporary European politics, the trans-Atlantic relationship, and democratization in Central and Eastern Europe. He also teaches a course on political leadership, convened by Professor Carol Lancaster, with former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar. Additionally, Kwaśniewski belongs to the Board of Trustees of the Hertie School of Governance
Hertie School of Governance
The Hertie School of Governance is a private university in Berlin, in the historic Quartier 110 of Friedrichstraße. The school is regarded as one of the leading policy institutes in Europe...
in Berlin. He is also Chairman of the supervisory board of the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kiev, Ukraine.
In 2008 Aleksander Kwaśniewski became Chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation
European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation
The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation was established in Paris, France on October 7, 2008 to monitor tolerance in Europe...
, a not-for-profit organization established to monitor tolerance
Toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
in Europe, prepare practical recommendations to governments and international organisations on improving interreligious and interethnic relations on the continent. The organization is co-chaired by European Jewish Fund
European Jewish Fund
The European Jewish Fund is an international non-governmental organisation that coordinates and supports programmes and events aimed at improving interreligious and interethnic relations, reinforcing Jewish national identity, counteracting assimilation, promoting tolerance and reconciliation in...
President Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor
Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor
Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor is a prominent public figure, businessman and philanthropist who actively participates in the promotion of tolerance and reconciliation in the modern world. He is also engaged in discussing and elaborating ways to stop nuclear proliferation and prevent a nuclear catastrophe...
.
Awards
Aleksander Kwaśniewski was honored with the following decorations:- Grand Master of the Order of the White Eagle (ex officio)
- LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
's Order of Vytautas the GreatOrder of Vytautas the GreatThe Order of Vytautas the Great is the Lithuanian Presidential Award. It may be conferred on the heads of Lithuania and foreign states, as well as their citizens, for distinguished services to the State of Lithuania.-History:...
, 1st grade (1996), the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke GediminasOrder of the Lithuanian Grand Duke GediminasThe Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas is the Lithuanian Presidential Award which was re-instituted to honour the citizens of Lithuania for outstanding performance in civil and public offices. Foreign nationals may also be awarded this Order. The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke...
, 1st grade; Order of Vytautas the Great with Golden Chain (2005) - Great Britain's Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the BathOrder of the BathThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(March 1996) and the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St GeorgeOrder of St Michael and St GeorgeThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(October 1996) - Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian RepublicOrder of Merit of the Italian RepublicThe Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was founded as the senior order of knighthood by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi in 1951...
(1996) - France's Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour (1996)
- NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
's Royal Order of Saint Olav (1996) - GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
's Grand Cross of the Order of the RedeemerOrder of the RedeemerThe Order of the Redeemer , also known as the Order of the Savior, is an order of Greece. The Order of the Redeemer is the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the modern Greek state.- History :...
(1996) - LatviaLatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
's Order of the Three StarsOrder of the Three StarsOrder of the Three Stars is order awarded for merits in service for Latvia. It was established in 1924 in remembrance of founding of Latvia. Its motto is "Per aspera ad astra"...
(1997) - FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
's Commander Grand Cross, with Collar, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1997)
- Malaysia's Royal Order of Merit (1997)
- UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
's Order of Prince Yaroslav the WiseOrder of Prince Yaroslav the WiseThe Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise is an award of Ukraine. It is awarded for distinguished services to the state and people of the Ukrainian nation. The Order was instituted on August 23, 1995 by the Ukrainian President, Leonid Kuchma....
, 1st class (1997) - PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
's Order of Infant Henry with Grand Ribbon (1997) - EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
's Grand Cross with the Ribbon of the Order of the Cross of Terra MarianaOrder of the Cross of Terra MarianaThe Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana was instituted in 1995 to honour the independence of the Estonian state. The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana is bestowed upon the President of the Republic. Presidents of the Republic who have ceased to hold office shall keep the Order of the Cross of...
(1998) - Order of the Star of RomaniaOrder of the Star of RomaniaThe Order of the Star of Romania is Romania's highest civil order. It is awarded by the President of Romania...
with Sash (1999) - ChileChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
's Grand Chain of the Order of MeritOrder of the Merit of ChileThe Order of the Merit of Chile is a Chilean military decoration and was created in 1929. Succeeding the Medal of the Merit, it was created during the term of the President Germán Riesco through the Minister of War decree No. 1350 on September 4, 1906...
(1999) - BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
's Grand Cross of the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold (1999) - TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
's Order of the Republic (2000) - CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
's Grand Order of King TomislavGrand Order of King TomislavThe Grand Order of King Tomislav , or more fully the Grand Order of King Tomislav with Sash and Great Morning Star , is the highest state order of the Republic of Croatia...
with the Ribbon and Great Star (2001) - Spain's Order of Isabella the Catholic with Chain (2001)
- BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
's National Order of the Southern CrossOrder of the Southern CrossThe National Order of the Southern Cross is a Brazilian order of chivalry founded by Emperor Pedro I on 1 December 1822. This order was intended to commemorate the independence of Brazil and the coronation of Pedro I...
(2002) - PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
's Special Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (2002) - Germany's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2002)
- Collar of the Order of the White LionOrder of the White LionThe Order of the White Lion is the highest order of the Czech Republic. It continues a Czechoslovak order of the same name created in 1922 as an award for foreigners....
(2004) - Japan's Grand Ribbon of the Great Order of the ChrysanthemumOrder of the Chrysanthemumis Japan's highest order. The Grand Cordon of the Order was established in 1876 by Emperor Meiji of Japan; the collar of the Order was added on January 4, 1888. Although technically the order has only one class, it can either be awarded with collar , or with grand cordon...
- International: Order of the Smile
- International: Golden Olympic OrderOlympic OrderThe Olympic Order is the highest award of the Olympic Movement, created by the International Olympic Committee in May 1975 as a successor to the Olympic Certificate previously awarded. The Olympic Order originally had three grades , although the bronze grade was retired in 1984...
of the International Olympic CommitteeInternational Olympic CommitteeThe International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
in (1998) - International: Golden Order of Merit of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (1999)
- International: Order of Merit of the European Olympic Committee (2000)
He was also awarded the highest distinction of the Polish Orthodox Church
Polish Orthodox Church
The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, commonly known as the Polish Orthodox Church, , is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches in full communion...
, the Order of Saint Magdalena, first degree with decorations (1998). He also received the television "Wiktor" prizes in 1993, 1995, and 2000.