Andrzej Duda

Andrzej Duda
6th President of Poland
Assumed office
6 August 2015
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz
Beata Szydło
Preceded by Bronisław Komorowski
Personal details
Born Andrzej Sebastian Duda
(1972-05-16) 16 May 1972
Kraków, Poland
Political party Freedom Union (2000–2001)
Law and Justice (2005–2015)
Independent (2015–present)
Spouse(s) Agata Kornhauser (1994–present)
Children 1
Residence Presidential Palace
Alma mater Jagiellonian University
Awards
Signature

Andrzej Sebastian Duda (born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer, politician and, since 6 August 2015, the sixth President of Poland.[1] Before the 2015 elections, he was a member of Polish Sejm (2011–14) and the European Parliament (2014–15).[2]

Early life

Andrzej Duda was born in Kraków, the son of Janina Milewska and Jan Tadeusz Duda, professors at the AGH University of Science and Technology. His grandfather fought in the Polish–Soviet War and later in the Home Army during the Second World War.[3]

He attended Jan III Sobieski High School, Kraków.[4]

He studied law at the Jagiellonian University. In October 2001 he was appointed as an assistant (holding M.A.) in Administrative Law Department of Jagiellonian University, and in January 2005 obtained a PhD degree in law there. Due to his political career, he has been mostly on unpaid leave since September 2006, except for a 13-month interval beginning in September 2010, when he returned to the university.[5]

Political career

Duda began his political career with the now-defunct Freedom Union Party in the early 2000s. After the parliamentary elections in 2005, he began his collaboration with the Law and Justice Party (PIS).[6] From 2006 to 2007 he was an undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Justice. From 2007 to 2008 he was a member of the Polish State Tribunal. From 2008 to 2010 he was an undersecretary of state in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland during the presidency of Lech Kaczyński.[7] In 2010, he was an unsuccessful candidate to become the Mayor of Kraków as a PiS candidate,[8] but was more successful in the 2011 parliamentary election, where he received 79,981 votes for the Kraków area, and thus became an envoy to the Sejm.[9]

In September 2013, the news magazine Polityka commended him for being one of the most active MPs at the time, describing him as being open to opposition arguments and as refraining from personal attacks, as part of his role at the Commission for Constitutional Responsibility.[10] However, he did not sit out the term, becoming elected in 2014 as a member of the European Parliament.[11]

In the first round of the 2015 presidential election, he came in first, receiving 5,179,092 votes and thus 34.76% of valid votes.[12] In the second round he took 51.55% of the vote against the 48.45% share of his rival, incumbent president Bronisław Komorowski.[13] On 26 May 2015, he officially resigned from party membership.[14]

Presidency (2015–present)

President Andrzej Duda with Pope Francis during World Youth Day 2016 in Kraków
President Andrzej Duda with President of the United States Barack Obama during press conference.

The five-year term of Andrzej Duda began on August 6, 2015 with taking an oath of office during a National Assembly session.[15]

President Andrzej Duda during his inaugural address in front of the National Assembly with Sejm Marshal Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska and Senate Marshal Bogdan Borusewicz behind him.

Duda rejected the European Union's proposal of migrant quotas to redistribute asylum seekers, saying: "I won’t agree to a dictate of the strong. I won’t back a Europe where the economic advantage of the size of a population will be a reason to force solutions on other countries regardless of their national interests".[16] Eventually Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz declared that Poland, as an expression of “European solidarity,” would take in 2,000 people over the next two years, mainly from Syria and Eritrea (out of 3,700 originally requested).[17] Poland has been subject to international criticism for its intransigence on the refugee crisis and for practicing religious discrimination, contrary to the 1951 Geneva Convention

Criticism and controversies

On November 16, 2015, basing on Art. 139 of the Constitution of Poland Duda pardoned a former Central Anticorruption Bureau head Mariusz Kamiński and three of its officers convicted by a court of 1st instance in the so-called Land Affair (Afera gruntowa),[18] marking the first pardon granted by a president before reaching a final verdict.[19] According to some lawyers (including professors Jan Zimmermann – Andrzej Duda's doctorate promoter, Leszek Kubicki – former Minister of Justice and Andrzej Zoll – former president of the Constitutional Tribunal) Duda has breached the Constitution of Poland.[20][21][22]

Andrzej Duda has denied swearing in any of the five Constitutional Tribunal judge candidates selected by the Sejm of the VII cadence and the three of those mentioned that were selected since 7 November 2015 whose election was declared constitutional.[23] On 3 and 9 December 2015 the president has sworn in five other candidates for the same office selected by the Sejm of the VIII cadence.[24][25] On 28 December 2015 Duda has signed the Constitutional Tribunal bill passed in 22 December 2015 by the Sejm, which unequivocally breaches the Constitution of Poland according to the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland,[26] Public Prosecutor General[27] and the Polish Ombudsman.[28]

In June 2016 Duda rejected appointing 10 judges selected by the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland.[29]

Personal life

Duda is married to Agata Kornhauser, a teacher of German at Jan III Sobieski High School in Kraków.[30] They had met at a party while still attending rival schools[3] and have been married since 21 December 1994.[31] Together they have one daughter, Kinga, born in 1995, now also studying law.[32] His father-in-law is Julian Kornhauser, a well-known writer, translator and literary critic of Jewish descent.[33]

He is a keen skier and while studying participated in the Polish Academic Championships in the Alpine skiing category.[3]

Duda is a devout Catholic, and the Church is very important to him. He took part in religious ceremonies on many occasions, including Midnight Mass, the blessing of food on Holy Saturday, or the Corpus Christi procession in Kraków.[34][35][36]

Honours

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrzej Duda.

References

  1. ↑ "Andrzej Duda Elected Poland's New President, Incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski Concedes Defeat". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Mularczyk, Arkadiusz. "Lista kandydatów na zastępców przewodniczącego i członków Trybunału Stanu" (PDF). Sejm of the Republic of Poland (in Polish). Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "Duda story – historia miłości, podboju gór i niespodziewanego wejścia w politykę". 14 February 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "Rodzina Dudów: nowy prezydent jest zapalonym narciarzem i molem książkowym. Jego żona to wymagająca nauczycielka". TVP. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Andrzej Duda od blisko 9 lat jest na urlopie bezpłatnym z UJ". RMF FM. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  6. ↑ Michał Krzymowski, Anna Szulc (14 March 2015). "Andrzej Duda był działaczem Unii Wolności". newsweek.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2015-03-14.
  7. ↑ "Andrzej Duda". andrzejduda.pl.
  8. ↑ "Serwis PKW – Wybory 2010" (in Polish). Retrieved 2010-11-24.
  9. ↑ "Serwis PKW – Wybory 2011" (in Polish). Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  10. ↑ Paradowska, Janina; Dąbrowska, Anna (26 September 2013). "Posłowie na medal i posłowie z naganą". Polityka. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  11. ↑ "Serwis PKW – Wybory 2014" (in Polish). Retrieved 2014-05-27.
  12. ↑ "Obwieszczenie Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej z dnia 11 maja 2015 r. o wynikach głosowania i wyniku wyborów Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, zarządzonych na dzień 10 maja 2015 r." (PDF). pkw.gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2015-05-12.
  13. ↑ "PKW – www.prezydent.2015.pkw.gov.pl". pkw.gov.pl.
  14. ↑ "Andrzej Duda już poza PiS. Zrzekł się członkostwa". Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  15. ↑ "". Prezydent.pl 6 August 2015.
  16. ↑ "Poland's Duda Blasts EU `Dictate of the Strong' on Migrants". Bloomberg. 8 September 2015.
  17. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/opinion/poland-shouldnt-shut-out-refugees.html
  18. ↑ "". Polska Agencja Prasowa, 17 November 2015.
  19. ↑ Marek Domagalski. Prezydencka łaska dzieli prawników. Rzeczpospolita, p. C2, 19 November 2015.
  20. ↑ "". dziennik.pl, 3 December 2015
  21. ↑ "". Ewa Siedlecka, Wyborcza.pl, 18 November 2015
  22. ↑ "". polskatimes.pl, 19 November 2015
  23. ↑ "". Dziennik Ustaw from 2015, pos. 2129
  24. ↑ "". prezydent.pl, 3 December 2015
  25. ↑ "", prezydent.pl, 9 December 2015
  26. ↑ "", krs.pl, 23 December 2015
  27. ↑ "", dziennik.pl, 23 December 2015
  28. ↑ "", rp.pl, 24 December 2015
  29. ↑ Ewa Siedlecka, "Prezydent sądzi sędziów", Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1, 29 June 2016
  30. ↑ "Teachers".
  31. ↑ Wantuch, Dominika (25 May 2015). "Agata Kornhauser-Duda. Pierwsza Dama w stylu zachodnim". Gazeta Wyborcza. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  32. ↑ ""Pierwsza córka" Kinga. W kampanii u boku ojca, chwaliła "energię, uczciwość i dobre serce"". TVN 24. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  33. ↑ Marek Bartosik, Andrzej Duda: spóźniony pociąg do polityki Gazeta Krakowska 2010-11-19 (Polish)
  34. ↑ "Prezydent Andrzej Duda z rodziną na pasterce [ZDJĘCIA]". katk (in Polish). Super Express. 27 December 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  35. ↑ "Andrzej Duda z córką święci jajeczko". js (in Polish). Fakt. 26 March 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  36. ↑ Sikora, Kamil (17 August 2015). "Prezydent i kościoły. Od wyborów Andrzej Duda ma więcej zdjęć ze mszy niż z państwowych uroczystości". natemat.pl. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  37. ↑ "Chancelaria das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas" (PDF). dre.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  38. ↑ "Указ № 99 от 14.04.2016 г. За награждаване на г-н Анджей Дуда – президент на Република Полша, с орден "Стара планина" с лента". lex.bg (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2016-05-03.
Political offices
Preceded by
Bronisław Komorowski		 President of Poland
2015–present 		Incumbent
Order of precedence
First Order of precedence of Poland
as President 		Succeeded by
Marek Kuchciński
as Marshal of the Sejm
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