Kwasniewski, Aleksander

Kwaś·niew·ski (kväsh-nyĕfʹskē), Aleksander. Born 1954.

Polish journalist and politician who was elected president in 1995.

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▪ 1996

      On Dec. 23, 1995, Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Communist Party apparatchik, was sworn in as the second president of postcommunist Poland. Though utilizing Western-style craft, Kwasniewski rode the wave that returned former party officials to the shores of power throughout Eastern Europe. In a narrow runoff victory that was seen by many as a political watershed, he dunked the sitting president and past reigning hero of Polish anticommunism, Lech Walesa, who had won the nation's first direct presidential election in 1990. Ironically, both men were baptized in the same political waters. Kwasniewski entered politics in the 1970s as a member of the ruling Communist Party at the same time that Walesa came of age, engineering the party's collapse while a leader of the Solidarity trade union. From a distance, the close election race pitted two political archetypes. Indeed, Kwasniewski's slick campaign and polished, noncontroversial image appealed to young voters unaffected by negative communist symbols and to others, mainly in northern and western towns, unimpressed by recent market reforms instituted on Walesa's watch.

      Kwasniewski was born on Nov. 15, 1954, in the town of Bialogard in northwestern Poland. He studied economics at the University of Gdansk, where he was chairman of a student group. He joined the Polish United Workers' Party (i.e., the Communist Party) in 1977 and moved to Warsaw to edit two of the party's youth newspapers—the weekly Itd ("Etc.") (1981-84) and the daily Sztandar Mlodych ("Youth Standard") (1984-85). He steadily rose up the party ranks, with appointments to the Council of Ministers in 1985 and as minister of youth affairs and physical culture in 1987. He was invited to take part in the round-table discussions that resulted in the end of communist rule in the late 1980s, heading the committee that dealt with trade unions. After the fall of communism, Kwasniewski founded a new party, the Democratic Left Alliance, which captured a plurality of seats in the parliamentary elections of 1993. Subsequently, he formed a ruling coalition with the Polish Peasant Party, which was similarly composed of former communists. In the closing days of the 1995 presidential election campaign, Kwasniewski had to face widespread accusations of dishonesty for inaccurately reporting his wife's earnings and for falsely claiming to have received his college degree. Ultimately, he capitalized on the waning popularity of Walesa, but he pledged to continue with less austerity and dislocation Walesa's reform efforts toward a market economy and membership in NATO and the European Union. (TOM MICHAEL)

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▪ Polish politician

born November 15, 1954, Białogard, Poland

      Polish politician, who served as president of Poland from 1995 to 2005.

      Kwaśniewski attended the University of Gdańsk, where he studied economics and was chairman of the socialist student group. A leader in the student activist movement, he served as chair of the University Council of the Socialist Union of Polish Students (1976–77). In 1977 he joined the governing communist Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) and moved to Warsaw to edit two of the party's youth newspapers—the weekly Itd (1981–84; “Etc.”) and the daily Sztandar Młodych (1984–85; “Standard of Youth”).

      Kwaśniewski steadily rose through the party's ranks, serving as Minister of Youth Affairs (1985–87) and as chair of the Committee for Youth and Physical Culture (1987–90); he also served as head of the country's Olympic Committee (1988–91). The PUWP faced growing unrest, however, particularly from the Solidarity trade union, led by Lech Wałęsa (Wałęsa, Lech). As a cabinet minister, Kwaśniewski participated in the round-table negotiations in the late 1980s that ended communist rule, cochairing the committee that dealt with trade unions. After the fall of communism, Wałęsa became Poland's first postcommunist president (1990), and Kwaśniewski became a founding member (1991) of the Democratic Left Alliance, which in 1993 won a plurality of seats in the Sejm, the lower house of the legislature. Kwaśniewski then formed a ruling coalition with the Polish Peasant Party, which was similarly composed of former communists.

      Campaigning for the presidency in 1995, Kwaśniewski capitalized on Wałęsa's waning popularity, defeating him narrowly in a runoff. He was easily reelected to a second term in 2000. Kwaśniewski continued Wałęsa's market reforms and oversaw the approval of a new constitution in 1997 (he had earlier chaired the parliamentary committee that drafted the document). Under his leadership, Poland was admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999 and to the European Union in 2004. He also supported the U.S.-led global war against terrorism following the September 11 attacks in 2001, and in 2003 he committed Polish troops to assist in the attack and subsequent reconstruction of Iraq, though he later claimed that Poland was misled about the threat posed by Iraq's weapons-of-mass-destruction (weapon of mass destruction) program.

      An agnostic, Kwaśniewski sought to develop better relations both with the Vatican (Vatican City) and with Jews (Jew), approving an agreement that set forth Poland's relationship with the Vatican, formally apologizing for a 1941 massacre of Jews at Jedwabne by Poles (the Nazis had been blamed for the incident), and restoring citizenship to many Jews deprived of it as a result of decisions taken by the communist government in 1968. He also vetoed legislation that would have provided compensation to individuals whose property was expropriated and subsequently nationalized by the former communist government. Constitutionally barred from running for a third term, Kwaśniewski left office in 2005.

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