Solidarity, full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity", is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state. The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981, representing one-third of the country's working-age population. Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and the union is widely recognised as having played a central role in the end of Communist rule in Poland.
In 1989–1991, Poland engaged in a democratic transition which put an end to the Polish People's Republic and led to the foundation of a democratic government, known as the Third Polish Republic, following the First and Second Polish Republic. After ten years of democratic consolidation, Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union on 1 May 2004.
Jan Władysław Rokita is a Polish liberal politician, a member of the Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament. He was chairman of the parliamentary club of the Civic Platform party from 2003 to 2005.
Jan Ferdynand Olszewski was a Polish conservative lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Poland for five months between December 1991 and early June 1992 and later became a leading figure of the conservative Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland.
Waldemar Pawlak(listen) is a Polish politician. He has twice served as Prime Minister of Poland, briefly in 1992 and again from 1993 to 1995. From November 2007 to November 2012 he served as Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy. Pawlak is the only person who held the office of prime minister twice during the Third Republic, and he remains Poland's youngest prime minister to date.
Elections in Poland refers to the election process as well as the election results in Poland. Poland has a multi-party political system. On the national level, Poland elects the head of state – the president – and a legislature. There are also various local elections, referendums and elections to the European Parliament.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 25 September 2005. Thirty million voters were eligible to vote for all 460 members of the lower house, the Sejm and all 100 members of the upper house, the Senate.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki(listen) is a Polish liberal politician and economist. A leading figure of the Gdańsk-based Liberal Democratic Congress in the early 1990s, Bielecki served as Prime Minister of Poland for most of 1991. In his post-political career, Bielecki served as president of Bank Pekao between 2003 and 2010, and served as the president of the Polish Institute of International Affairs between 2009 and 2015. Since the early 2000s, Bielecki has been a member of the Civic Platform party. In 2010, the Warsaw Business Journal described Bielecki as one of the most respected economists in Poland.
Bronisław Maria Komorowski is a Polish politician and historian who served as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015.
Bogdan Michał Borusewicz was the Marshal in the Polish Senate from 20 October 2005 to 11 November 2015. Borusewicz was a democratic opposition activist under the Communist regime, a member of the Polish parliament (Sejm) for three terms and first Senate Marshal to serve two terms in this office. He was Acting President of Poland for a few hours in 2010.
Grażyna Jolanta Ciemniak is a Polish political figure who has been a member of the Senate of Poland (1993–97) and Deputy President of Bydgoszcz (1998–2001), as well as member of the Sejm of Poland and member of the European Parliament (2004).
Sławomir Witold Nitras[swaˈvɔmir ˈvitɔlt ˈɲitras] is a Polish politician, political scientist, member of Civic Platform (PO), an MP in the lower house of Parliament from 2015 Member of the Sejm.
The Bydgoszcz events – also referred to as the Bydgoszcz crisis, or the Bydgoszcz provocation – were a series of events in Poland culminating in the beatings of delegates of the Solidarity movement by the forces called upon by the authorities during the session of the voivodship National Council on 19 March 1981, which was to discuss the running strike in Bydgoszcz.
The Senior Marshal is an honorary post in Sejm given to one of the oldest members of the body. He is nominated by the President of Poland and functions as Marshal of the Sejm until that holder of office is elected by the newly elected Sejm and Senate. Election of the marshal of the Sejm is usually the first item on the agenda for the new Sejm.
Andrzej Bohdan Celiński is a Polish politician. Until 1989 activist of the democratic opposition in Poland. Former Member of Senate and Sejm. Minister of Culture in the government of Prime Minister Leszek Miller (2001-2002).
Krzysztof Brejza is a Polish politician, currently serving as Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, representing the Bydgoszcz district. Between 2005 and 2006 he was a member of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Regional Assembly.
Roman Bolesław Bartoszcze was a Polish agrarian politician from Polish People's Party (PSL).
Kosma Tadeusz Złotowski is a Polish politician who was a member of both chambers of the Polish parliament, President (=Mayor) of Bydgoszcz (1994-1995) and a member of Bydgoszcz City Council (2002-2005). , graduated in Polish philology from University of Warsaw. In 2004, obtained the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Dominican University in Chicago.
Grzegorz Zenon Schreiber is a Polish politician who is a current Marshal of Łódź Voivodeship. Between 1991 and 1993 he was Sejm member. He was Bydgoszcz City Councillors also (2002–2006).
Adam Glapiński is a Polish economist and politician, the current President of the National Bank of Poland, Economics professor, a member of the first term of the Sejm, a member of the fourth term of the Senate and between 2010–16 a member of the Monetary Policy Council. He also served as the Minister for Construction and Spatial Planning and later as the Minister for Foreign Economic Cooperation.
