[Portrait] Aleksander Kwasniewski - President of the Republic of Poland

Husband and father but all people address him as "Mr President". Second term in office. A brilliant and successful politician respected by the Poles and known abroad. With him as President Poland entered NATO and will join the EU next year. Aleksander Kwasniewski - the President of Poland.

Definitely one of the most successful politicians in Poland, and much more. Known as the President who introduced Poland to NATO and the one who will lead Poland to EU membership next year. Under his presidency Poland got its new democratic constitution. He is the politician whom the majority of Poles trust most and if it would be possible for him to be candidate, he would probably win another presidential election in two years. At the beginning controversial, now a favourite politician of Poles. Who is Mr Kwasniewski ?

He was born in 1954 in Bialogard. In 1973 he started economics studies at the University of Gdansk. Finished in 1977, although he never received his MA degree. It was the cause of the scandal during his election campaign in which he took part because in his personal information Mr Kwasniewski stated that he had been awarded a MA. He joined the Communist party at 23 and in the late 80s he was on of the organisers of the Socialist Union of Polish Students

He was the editor of two youth-oriented party newspapers ( ITD and Sztandar Mlodych) where he earned a reputation as a moderate reformist thinker. From 1985 till 1987, he was the government's minister of youth and sports. He participated in the "Round Table" debates and after the collapse of the Communist party in 1991 Mr Kwasniewski was a founder of a social democratic party called Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratczynej) and he was the chair till 1995. At that time some called him pragmatic and others opportunistic. In 1991 he became a member of parliament and using his political talents he led SLD to a victory in the 1993 elections. In 1995 Aleksander Kwasniewski was elected for the President of Poland and narrowly defeated Lech Walesa (campaign slogans: "Let's choose the future" and "Common Poland"). Re-elected in 2000 he collected 53,9% of votes in the first run. His election campaign slogan was: "The home of all - Poland".

President Kwasniewski launched many initiatives aiming at rapprochement between Poles and their neighbours from Germany and Ukraine but also with Jews.

Mr Kwasniewski is married with one child. His wife, Jolanta, is a very serious candidate in the presidential elections.

Patryk Pawlak
Paris (France)