Aleksander Kwaśniewski

Aleksander Kwaśniewski (born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist who served as the 3rd president of Poland from 1995 to 2005.

Kwaśniewski served as a minister in the communist government during the 1980s, and later led the post-communist centre-left Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, a successor to the former ruling Polish United Workers' Party, and a co-founder of the Democratic Left Alliance. In 1995, he was elected to the presidency, defeating the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa, and was re-elected in 2000 in a decisive first-round victory. His presidency was marked by modernisation of Poland, rapid economic growth (Poland's GDP doubled in ten years), the drafting of a new constitution (1997), and the accession of Poland to NATO (1999) and the European Union (2004). In 2004, he brokered a pro-democratic agreement during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

According to a 2020 poll conducted by Rzeczpospolita, Kwaśniewski was considered the best president in the post-1989 history of Poland by a plurality of Poles.

Kwaśniewski was born in Białogard. From 1973 to 1977, Kwaśniewski studied Transport Economics and Foreign Trade at the University of Gdańsk, although he never graduated. He became politically active at this time, and joined the ruling 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 the position of 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 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.

In an often bitter campaign, Kwaśniewski won the presidential election in 1995, collecting 51.7% of votes in the run-off, against 48.3% for the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa, the former Solidarity leader. Kwaśniewski's campaign slogans were "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość) and "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. 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.

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 privatisation 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 resigned from the SLD after the election. Every Polish president since then has renounced formal ties with their party upon taking office. 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 SLD 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, the Polish newspaper Życie 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 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 legal opinions. The commission decided eventually not to summon Kwaśniewski.

For a second time, Kwaśniewski refused as a witness to face the commission investigating the privatisation 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. He sought to undermine the commission by releasing considerable amounts of information to journalists while only belatedly making it available to the commission members.

On 7 March 2006, Kwaśniewski was appointed Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership at Georgetown University, where he teaches students in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service about contemporary European politics, the trans-Atlantic relationship, and democratisation in Central and Eastern Europe. He also teaches a course on political leadership, convened by Professor Carol Lancaster, with former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar. He is also Chairman of the supervisory board of the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kyiv, Ukraine and a member of the International Honorary Council of the European Academy of Diplomacy. In 2008, Aleksander Kwaśniewski became Chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, a not-for-profit organisation established to monitor tolerance in Europe, prepare practical recommendations to governments and international organisations on improving interreligious and interethnic relations on the continent. The organisation is co-chaired by European Jewish Fund President Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor. Since June 2012 Kwaśniewski and Pat Cox lead a European Parliament monitoring mission in Ukraine to monitor the criminal cases against Yulia Tymoshenko, Yuriy Lutsenko and Valeriy Ivaschenko. Since 2011, Kwaśniewski has served on the Leadership Council for Concordia, a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in New York City focused on promoting effective public-private collaboration to create a more prosperous and sustainable future. Kwaśniewski was also involved with the EU talks with the Ukrainian government about the association agreement with the EU that the Ukrainian parliament failed to ratify in November 2013. After the Maidan unrest had installed the transitional government under Yatsenyuk, who signed the EU association agreement for Ukraine in 2014, Kwaśniewski took up in a director's post in the gas company "Burisma Holdings Limited" which owns licenses for the major Ukrainian gas fields.

In 2019, he became a Member of the International Advisory Council (IAC) to Uzbekistan. In 2020, he assumed the position of Chair of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Commission on Drugs.

Aleksander Kwaśniewski has been honoured to date with the following decorations:

Poland: Grand Master of the Order of the White Eagle (ex officio); Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta First Class, Grand Master of the Order and President of the Chapter

Lithuania: Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (1996), Grand Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (1999); Order of Vytautas the Great with Golden Chain (2005)

United Kingdom: Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (March 1996); Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (October 1996)

Italy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic with Collar (1996)

In 1979, Kwaśniewski married lawyer Jolanta Konty in a civil ceremony. They have one daughter, Aleksandra (born 1981).

He identifies as an atheist. In 2005, at the end of his second presidential term, the couple finalised their marriage in a low-key Catholic ceremony presided by Kwaśniewski's former presidential chaplain, in the presidential chapel. He is fluent in both English and Russian.