Michał Kamiński

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Michał Kamiński, 2016

Michał Tomasz Kamiński (born March 28, 1972 in Warsaw ) is a Polish politician (UED, previously NOP, ZChN, PP, PiS, PJN, PO), a former member of the European Parliament and currently a member of the Sejm . From 2009 to 2011 he was chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group .

career

Kamiński studied International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of Warsaw . At the age of 15 he joined the radical nationalist party NOP, which was still illegal at the time. In 1989 he was one of the founding members of the Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe (Christian National Union), and he also worked as a radio and newspaper journalist in Bydgoszcz and Łomża . During the election campaign for the Polish presidential election in 1995 , he was press spokesman for the non-party conservative candidate Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz .

In the Polish parliamentary elections in 1997 he achieved a seat in the Sejm on the list of Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność (Electoral Solidarity) . He sparked controversy in 1999 when he traveled to London for a private meeting with Augusto Pinochet , who was under house arrest there at the time.

In 2001 he joined the Przymierze Prawicy (Right Alliance) and in the following year he joined the new right-wing conservative party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice, PiS).

Michał Kamiński, 2007

In 2001 a new controversy arose when a Jewish association accused him of wanting to prevent a memorial event for the Jewish victims of National Socialism in the city of Jedwabne . Kamiński rejected the anti-Semitism allegations made against him as "ridiculous". In September 2001 he was re-elected to the Sejm, where he was a member of the Agriculture and Foreign Policy Committees.

After Poland's EU accession Kamiński was in the 2004 European elections to the European Parliament voted, where he, like all members of the PiS national-conservative faction UEN joined whose vice chairman, he was. He was also a member of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection .

Kamiński was considered an important ally of the Polish President Lech Kaczyński in the Polish presidential election in 2005 and as a representative of the moderate wing of the PiS. In July 2007 he became the State Secretary responsible for media policy in the Polish Presidential Office and gave up his seat in the European Parliament; for him Ewa Tomaszewska moved up.

Michał Kamiński (right), with President Lech Kaczyński (left).

In the 2009 European elections , however, Kamiński ran again and won another mandate. Instead of the UEN group, which now dissolved, the PiS joined the new group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). At the constituent meeting on July 14, 2009, he was nominated by the ECR as a candidate for one of the vice-presidencies of Parliament. However, he was not elected to this post, largely due to the candidacy of British MP Edward McMillan-Scott , who ran as an independent candidate from the ECR group and was elected thanks to the votes of the other groups. McMillan-Scott was then expelled from the ECR. For his part, Kamiński was elected chairman of the ECR group, making him the first chairman of a group in the European Parliament from an Eastern European country.

At the end of 2010, Kamiński announced his exit from the PiS and, like other PiS MEPs, was involved in the founding of the new Polska jest Najważniejsza (Poland is most important) party, which adopted a more conservative orientation. However, he initially remained group leader of the ECR. In March 2011, he resigned from this post after he said he had learned of "aggression and hatred" from his former party colleagues. After the dissolution of the Polska Jest Najważniejsza party at the end of 2013, he remained independent.

Kamiński ran for the Civic Platform (PO) in the 2014 European elections , but was unable to win a mandate. In February 2015 he became State Secretary in the staff of Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz (PO). In the 2015 parliamentary elections , Kamiński entered the Sejm for the PO, which he also joined in early 2016. In the summer of 2016 he was expelled from the PO and its parliamentary group.

In September 2016 he founded the European Democrats group with other former PO MEPs . In November 2016 he was co-founder of the party Union of European Democrats , which emerged from the merger of the parliamentary group and the small party Partia Demokratyczna - demokraci.pl .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Daily Telegraph , July 15, 2009: Tory MEPs 'led by Pole with extremist past'
  2. ^ The Times , July 16, 2009: Right-wing Polish MEP Michal Kaminski becomes Tories controversial EU leader .
  3. ^ Daily Telegraph , July 14, 2009: Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott expelled after poll rebellion .
  4. ↑ EUobserver , January 27, 2011: Eurosceptic group in turmoil as leader steps down (English).
  5. ↑ Michał Kamiński były "spin doctor" PiS szefem CIR . In: wyborcza.pl , February 3, 2015 (Polish)
  6. ↑ http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/michal-kaminski-zawieszony-w-prawach-czlonka-klubu-po/rvxe5l
  7. ↑ http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/europejscy-demokraci-lacza-sie-z-partia-demokratyczna/zxecng

Web links

Commons : Michał Kamiński  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kamiński, Michał
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kamiński, Michał Tomasz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish politician, member of the Sejm, MEP
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw