Piotr Wawrzyk

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Piotr Wawrzyk
Piotr Wawrzyk 2022.jpg
Wawrzyk in 2022
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
21 January 2021 –31 August 2023
Personal details
Born
Piotr Sylwester Wawrzyk

(1967-12-31) 31 December 1967 (age 56) [1]
Kielce, Poland
Political party Law and Justice
Other political
affiliations		 Polish People's Party

Piotr Sylwester Wawrzyk (born 31 December 1967) is a Polish government official. He was the Deputy Foreign Minister until 31 August 2023 when he and seven others were removed from office for accepting bribes in return for issuing official visas.

Contents

Biography

Wawrzyk graduated in international relations and law from the University of Warsaw. [2] In 2006, he became a doctor of humanities based on his thesis titled Polityka wewnętrzna Unii Europejskiej (Internal Policy of the European Union) from the Pułtusk Academy of Humanities.

Political activities

Wawrzyk was in the Polish People's Party for several years. [3] On 2 February 2018, [4] he became Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for parliamentary, legal, treaty, consular, United Nations and human rights matters. [2] In the 2019 Polish parliamentary elections, he was elected as an MP of the 9th term from the Law and Justice Party list in the Kielce district, receiving 6,570 votes. [5] He then resigned from his position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 27 November 2019, he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Secretary of State. He was entrusted with matters related to Poland's membership in the EU, legal, legal and treaty matters, matters relating to the United Nations, as well as consular and parliamentary matters. [6]

In December 2020, he became a candidate for the position of Ombudsman on the recommendation of Law and Justice. [7] On 21 January 2021, his candidacy was accepted by the Sejm (233 MPs for, 219 against, 1 abstained), [8] but the Senate rejected his candidacy (51 against, 48 for, 1 abstained). [9] In March 2021, he joined Law and Justice. [10]

Visa scandal

On 31 August 2023, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki dismissed him from the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. [11] The official reason for his dismissal was "lack of satisfactory cooperation", although media outlets say that it was because of the Polish cash-for-visa scandal. On 14 September 2023, he was reportedly hospitalized in a critical condition after what is believed to be a suicide attempt. The suicide note left mentioned the scandal. [12] [13] On 17 January 2024, the Central Anticorruption Bureau announced that an individual, named only as "Piotr W." in accordance with Polish privacy law, had been arrested on corruption charges relating to the scandal; a statement issued by Wawrzyk later confirmed that he had been the subject of the arrest. [14] [15]

See also

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Events in the year 2023 in Poland.

The Polish cash-for-visa scandal was a political scandal concerning alleged corruption in the granting of travel visas by officials of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Polish consular service. The majority of recipients left Poland for other Schengen Area countries or for North America. According to critics, up to 350,000 visas may have been illegally issued in return for bribes.

References

  1. ↑ "Piotr Wawrzyk - Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej". sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  2. 1 2 "Podsekretarz stanu ds. parlamentarnych, prawnych, traktatowych, konsularnych, Narodów Zjednoczonych i praw człowieka – Piotr Wawrzyk". msz.gov.pl. Archived from the original on 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  3. ↑ Angelina Kosiek (2020-12-04). "Wiceszef MSZ chce się zapisać do PiS w Świętokrzyskiem. Wcześniej długo był działaczem PSL". wyborcza.pl. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  4. ↑ "Piotr Wawrzyk podsekretarzem stanu w MSZ". onet.pl. 2018-02-02. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  5. ↑ "Wybory do Sejmu i Senatu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 2019". pkw.gov.pl. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  6. ↑ "Nominacje dla nowych wiceministrów spraw zagranicznych". gov.pl. 2019-11-27. Archived from the original on 2019-11-28. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  7. ↑ "Wiceminister kandydatem PiS na RPO". polsatnews.pl. 2020-12-28. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  8. ↑ "Sejm zdecydował ws. RPO. Są wyniki głosowania". wprost.pl. 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  9. ↑ "Piotr Wawrzyk nie zostanie Rzecznikiem Praw Obywatelskich. Senat nie wyraził zgody". gazeta.pl. 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  10. ↑ "Piotr Wawrzyk wstępuje do PiS. "To partia, która mi odpowiada"". wp.pl. 2021-03-04. Archived from the original on 2021-03-05. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
  11. ↑ "Piotr Wawrzyk nie jest już wiceszefem MSZ. Resort potwierdza". money.pl. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
  12. ↑ "Piotr Wawrzyk trafił do szpitala. "Stan bardzo poważny"". www.eska.pl. Retrieved 2023-09-28.
  13. ↑ Schmitz, Rob (September 18, 2023). "What we know about the visa scandal in Poland". NPR . Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  14. ↑ Starcevic, Seb (18 January 2024). "Former Polish minister arrested in cash-for-visas probe". Politico . Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  15. ↑ Przemysław Malinowski (as "p.mal") (18 January 2024). "Afera wizowa: Zatrzymany były wiceszef MSZ Piotr Wawrzyk wydał oświadczenie". Rzeczpospolita (in Polish). Retrieved 18 January 2024.
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