Jan Olszewski

Jan Olszewski (2008)

Jan Ferdynand Olszewski (born August 20, 1930 in Warsaw ; † February 7, 2019 in Warsaw) was a Polish politician , lawyer and publicist. He was Prime Minister of Poland for six months from 1991–92 .

Life

Jan Olszewski's mother was a cousin of the freedom fighter Stefan Okrzeja, who was executed by Russians in 1905 . During the Warsaw Uprising was Olszewski member of the militant scout unit " Gray Ranks " and carried the fight name "Orlik" (Eaglet). After the war he was politically active in the youth organization of the Polish People's Party . From 1949 he studied law at the University of Warsaw and passed the state examination in 1953. From 1962 he was admitted to the bar.

Olszewski published 1955–1957 in the weekly journal of intellectual youth " Po prostu " ("Simple", "In a simple way"), which played an important role in the Polish thaw . There he published an appeal for the rehabilitation of the soldiers of the Home Army who were condemned by Stalinists . After the magazine was banned by the rulers, he was next to u. a. Jan Józef Lipski , Aleksander Małachowski or his colleague from the "Po prostu" editorial team, Jerzy Urban, joined the Club of the Crooked Wheel , a literary discussion group whose participants were to have a say in Poland's politics well into the first years of the 21st century.

In the People's Republic of Poland before 1990 Jan Olszewski worked as a lawyer for various opposition groups, including the Komitet Obrony Robotników (KOR, German: “Committee for the Defense of Workers”) and from 1980 also for the Solidarność trade union . In political trials he defended a. a. Karol Modzelewski , Jacek Kuroń , Melchior Wańkowicz and Adam Michnik , which is why he was temporarily (1968-1970) banned from working . He was also a joint plaintiff from 1984 to 1985 in the trial for the killing of Jerzy Popiełuszko .

In 1989, Olszewski was a participant in the round table discussions . From 1990 to 1992 he was the deputy chairman of Solidarność. In 1991 he was elected to the Sejm as a candidate for the “ Porozumienie Centrum ” party led by Jarosław Kaczyński , and from December 1991 to June 1992 he was Prime Minister of Poland as head of a five-party coalition . On the night of June 4th to 5th, 1992, he was eliminated by a vote of no confidence after he had refused to resign despite the fact that the parliamentary majority no longer existed. The vote was brought forward after Olszewski's Interior Minister Antoni Macierewicz had published a list of alleged confederates (V-men) of the former Interior Security Service SB . a. the name of the Christian National Sejm Marshal Wiesław Chrzanowski included.

After other unsuccessful attempts in 1995 he founded his own Catholic - nationalist party , the Ruch Odbudowy Polski (ROP, German: "Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland"), of which he became chairman . In the same year he ran for the office of President , but failed with 6.9% of the vote in the first ballot.

From 1997 to 2001, Olszewski was a member of the Sejm for the ROP . For the presidential election in 2000 he again declared his candidacy, but withdrew it before the election date to support Marian Krzaklewski from the Solidarność election campaign , who was also unsuccessful. On August 17, 2000, he was wounded in a traffic accident in which his ROP party colleague Waldemar Grudziński, who was behind the wheel, was killed. In the 2001 parliamentary elections he ran for the League Polskich Rodzin (LPR, German: "League of Polish Families"), was re-elected to the Sejm, but in 2002 resigned from the LPR. He was a member of the Sejm until the end of the legislative period (2005). In 2005 he ran for the Senate from the constituency of Warsaw , but received only the sixth best result out of four seats to be awarded. From 2006 he was an advisor to President Lech Kaczyński, who died on April 10, 2010 . Before the parliamentary elections in 2007 , he applied unsuccessfully for a place on the PiS list .

Olszewski's nephew and godchild is the Warsaw Auxiliary Bishop Michał Janocha .

In 2011, Olszewski suffered a stroke , and in November 2018 he was treated for a sudden loss of consciousness . He fell into a coma in February 2019 and died shortly afterwards at the age of 88.

Web links

Commons : Jan Olszewski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Solid as a rock , Radiodienst Polska

Individual evidence

1. ^ Prime Minister Jan Olszewski nie żyje. In: tysol.pl , February 8, 2019
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} kn: Jan Olszewski nie żyje. Były premier miał 88 lat. In: gazeta.pl , February 8, 2019
3. ^ ^{A b c} Justyna Błażejowska: Jan Olszewski (1930–2019) . In: Internet presence of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej , accessed on February 10, 2019.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Nie żyje Jan Olszewski. Były premier i opozycjonista. In: polityka.pl , February 8, 2019.
5. ↑ Martin Krzywdzinski: labor and social policy in Poland. Mediation of interests and political exchange in a contested political field. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 127–128.
6. ↑ Jan Olszewski ranny w wypadku samochodowym . In: money.pl, August 17, 2010
7. ↑ State Electoral Commission: Elections 2005 . Retrieved February 8, 2019.
8. ^ Robert Mazurek: Kościół - dom otwarty i twierdza warowna . In: Rzeczpospolita: Plus Minus , May 22, 2015 (Polish).
9. ^ LG: Jan Olszewski jest w szpitalu, nieprzytomny. Żona: modlę się, by przeżył . In: gazeta.pl , February 8, 2019.