Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz

Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
12th Prime Minister of Poland
In office October 31, 2005 – July 14, 2006
President	Aleksander Kwaśniewski Lech Kaczyński
Deputy	Ludwik Dorn Zyta Gilowska Roman Giertych Andrzej Lepper
Preceded by	Marek Belka
Succeeded by	Jarosław Kaczyński
Acting Mayor of Warsaw
In office July 20, 2006 – December 2, 2006
President	Lech Kaczyński
Prime Minister	Jarosław Kaczyński
Preceded by	Mirosław Kochalski (acting)
Succeeded by	Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz
Personal details
Born	(1959-12-20) December 20, 1959 Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland
Political party	Law and Justice, –
Spouse(s)	Maria Marcinkiewicz (m. 1981, div. 2009) Izabela Olchowicz (m. 2009)
Profession	Physicist
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Awards

Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz (Polish pronunciation: [kaˈʑimʲɛʂ mart͡ɕiŋˈkʲɛvit͡ʂ]) (born December 20, 1959) is a Polish conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from October 31, 2005 to July 14, 2006. He was a member of the Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS).

Early life

Born in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Marcinkiewicz graduated in 1984 from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry (having studied physics) of the Wrocław University. He also completed post-graduate course in Administration at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He worked as an elementary school teacher and a headmaster in his homecity of Gorzów Wielkopolski.

In the 1980s, he was also a member of the Solidarity movement and editor of underground press materials. In 1992, he became a State Secretary (formal name for deputy minister) in the Ministry of National Education. From 1999 to 2000, he was the cabinet chief for Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek.

Cabinet of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz

Following the victory of the Law and Justice party in the September 2005 Polish parliamentary elections, its prime ministerial candidate, party leader Jarosław Kaczyński decided against becoming prime minister so as not to damage the chances of his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński in the then-upcoming October presidential election. Instead the little-known Marcinkiewicz became PM, leading a coalition formed by Jarosław, who remained in the background, but influential.

Before his prime ministerial appointment, Marcinkiewicz remained a political cipher, which resulted in a political carte blanche after the appointment. Relatively unknown to the public at that time, due to his intensive political activity Marcinkiewicz gained a high public recognition, rapidly becoming the most trusted and popular politician in Poland. Marcinkiewicz strongly supports Polish membership in EU, although he disagrees with several more integrationist ideas, such as the European Constitution. Economic policy of his cabinet is a continuation of those conducted by previous governments.

Following speculations of a rift with Jarosław Kaczyński, Marcinkiewicz tendered his resignation on July 7, 2006, maintaining however that no one will insert a wedge between him and Kaczyński, words he directed at Donald Tusk. He was succeeded as prime minister on July 14 by Kaczyński.

Later life

On July 18, Marcinkiewicz was appointed as the temporary acting mayor of Warsaw, a so-called "comissar". During the municipal elections in 2006, he was the Law and Justice candidate for mayor of Warsaw. In the first round of voting, held on November 12, he got 38.42%, while his closest rival, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz of the opposition Civic Platform won 34.15% of the votes. In the second round, held on November 26, he got 46.82% of the votes, losing the elections.

He was one of the directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [1] from March 2007 until May 2008.

From 2008 until 2013 he worked for Goldman Sachs, presumably as a lobbyist [2]

In 2009, after divorcing his wife and mother of four, he married his former mistress, 22 years his junior,[3] with whom he is now embroiled in a bitter divorce battle [4]

Criticism

In the first half of 2009 he came under heavy criticism because of not keeping up with the moral values he promoted while being engaged in politics. In particular, it was discovered that he was criticizing extra-marital affairs and praising traditional family values, while having an affair himself. [5].

Famous quotes

He became famous for his enthusiastic "Yes, yes, yes!" after the success in negotiations of the EU budget on 17 December 2005 (see: The sound and radio comment, The image) - the phrase that has entered into the Polish popular culture as a symbol of a political success 'with a human face' (not refraining from real emotions) (see: - A press comment), but at the same time as a symbol of untempered self-confidence. As a rhetorical device (epizeuxis), it has already been re-used by Volkswagen in her publicity campaign (see: Słownik IV RP or Polictical vocabulary of the 4th Republic of Poland).

External links

• Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's homepage
• Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's blog
• 100 Days of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz: Euro-Pragmatism Victory
• Jarosław Kaczyński Becomes Poland's Prime Minister

Political offices
Preceded by Marek Belka	Prime Minister of Poland 2005–2006	Succeeded by Jarosław Kaczyński