Jan Rokita

Jan Rokita, 2013

Jan Maria Władysław Piotr Rokita (born June 18, 1959 in Cracow , Poland ) is a former conservative Polish politician of the "Civic Platform" ( Platforma Obywatelska ) in the Polish Parliament ( Sejm ) for the 5th electoral term until 2007.

Career

Solidarność / Obywatelski County

Rokita studied law at the University of Krakow and was active as a student in anti-communist circles; u. a. he was head of the Solidarność group at the University of Krakow. In the first semi-free elections in 1989 he was elected as one of the youngest members of the Sejm for the Solidarność-affiliated “Citizens Committee” ( Komitet Obywatelski ) and deputy chairman of the parliamentary group. He was also chairman of the Sejm committee for the files of the Polish Stasi counterpart ( Służba Bezpieczeństwa ).

UD / UW

When the Solidarność movement began to split into different currents, Rokita first joined the liberal “Democratic Union” ( Unia Demokratyczna ) around Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki in 1991 , in which he belonged to the conservative wing. Under Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993), Rokita was head of the Office of the Council of Ministers ( Urząd Rady Ministrów ) - a function roughly equivalent to that of the German Chancellery Minister . As such, he had great informal influence on government policy, so that he was also referred to as a "secret prime minister".

After the Unia Demokratyczna was absorbed into the successor party Freedom Union ( Unia Wolności ) in 1994 , he initially remained a member, but made a name for himself as a representative of the conservative wing within this party, which was heavily influenced by liberal intellectuals. In particular, he spoke out against the left-wing liberal Jacek Kuroń's candidacy for the Freedom Union.

SKL / AWS / PO

The final break with the Freedom Union did not come until 1997. Rokita then joined the Conservative People's Party ( Stronnictwo Konserwatywno-Ludowe / SKL), which won the Sejm elections in the same year as part of the conservative party alliance AWS (Electoral Action Solidarność ). In 2000, Rokita became chairman of the SKL, but in 2001 the new bourgeois party PO was founded in 2001 by the more conservative part of the Liberal Freedom Union and the more liberal part of the conservative AWS . In 2001 Rokita moved back to the Sejm as a PO MP. In 2002 he was narrowly defeated in the election as mayor of Kraków .

Committee of Inquiry into Rywin Affair

In 2003/2004, Rokita experienced a huge surge in popularity through his role in the committee of inquiry into the Rywin affair , in which he distinguished himself as a kind of tribune through his aggressive questioning style and within a short time rose to become the most well-known PO politician , whose poll ratings also improved significantly.

"Nice or Death"

During the discussion about the EU constitution , a. negotiated the voting mode in the Council of the European Union . The negotiated proposals provided for the disproportionate weighting of the medium-sized EU states through the Treaty of Nice to be revised. a. to the disadvantage of the Polish vote weight. As the leader of the strongest opposition faction in the Sejm, Rokita coined the populist catchphrase “Nice or Death” in September 2003 (alluding to Fidel Castro's parole socialismo o muerte ). In doing so, he provoked a corresponding mood among the population and forced the SLD- led government to adhere uncompromisingly to the weighting of votes in the Treaty of Nice (which ultimately failed).

Electoral defeat in 2005

Before the 2005 Sejm elections , Rokita was long considered the most promising candidate for the office of prime minister after an election victory for the PO, which is expected according to surveys . Before the elections, he spoke out in favor of a coalition with the right-wing conservative party Law and Justice ( Prawo i Sprawiedliwość / PiS ) around the brothers Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński . However, after this surprisingly emerged as the strongest party in the elections, the PO refused to join a PiS-led coalition as a junior partner and went into the opposition. Rokita lost the parliamentary group chairmanship to PO party chairman Donald Tusk , who was also defeated in the presidential elections immediately after the parliamentary elections to the PiS candidate Lech Kaczyński. Rokita's popularity has declined noticeably since then.

Personal

Rokita, who used to have the two first names "Jan Maria", has only been called "Jan Rokita" or "Jan Władysław Rokita" since 2004 - allegedly because of the image he acquired as a hardliner not through the female name "Maria" to endanger.

Rokita is married to the (Russian) German Nelli Rokita-Arnold , who emigrated from the Kyrgyz SSR ( Soviet Union ) to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1977 and was a member of the Sejm herself from 2007-2011 - but for the right-wing PiS party.

Withdrawal from politics

On September 14, 2007, Rokita announced on TVN24 that he would not run for a seat in parliament in the upcoming elections and would withdraw from public life. This decision was related to Nelli Rokita's nomination, announced a few hours earlier, for the post of adviser to President Lech Kaczyński in women's affairs. At the same time he underlined that he would vote for the PO in the elections and keep his fingers crossed for his party colleagues. He said he would continue to be a member of the PO and may return to politics in the future. In 2013, however, he was excluded from the PO due to unpaid membership fees.

Negative press

In February 2009, after a tangible dispute with a stewardess and pilot at Munich Airport, the Polish politician had to be handcuffed out of a Lufthansa plane that was ready to take off. The reason for the arrest was following an argument after he refused to use his seat belt. Since he was violent towards the stewardess, the pilot expelled the former politician from the plane, but since he did not want to leave the aircraft voluntarily, the pilot called the police. With the grounds for violence on board , according to the police spokesman, it was a legitimate procedure to view a passenger as a security risk and to remove it from the danger area with the help of the police.

Rokita, who had been brought up by Prime Minister Donald Tusk as a possible head of government or foreign minister before the 2007 parliamentary elections, accused the German authorities of “illegal actions and an anti-Polish attitude.” They treated him “like a dog,” he told the Gazeta newspaper Wyborcza. His wife Nelli Rokita , a member of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) of the Polish President Lech Kaczyński, filed a complaint against a police officer for insult. On the other hand, the Landshut public prosecutor's office investigated Rokita on suspicion of bodily harm, trespassing and violation of the aviation law. The incident was used for anti-German reporting in various conservative Polish media.

Web links

• Rokita website ( memento of March 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Polish)
• Robert Krasowski: Krasowski z Rokitą: Koalicja, do której nie doszło . In: Polityka . February 26, 2013, accessed January 3, 2018 (Polish).

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ netzeitung.de After a dispute with stewardesses, the police came: Politician arrest outraged Polish media ( Memento from February 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )