Renata Beger | |
---|---|
Member of Sejm | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1958 |
Nationality | Polish |
Political party | Samoobrona |
Renata Lidia Beger (born 18 July 1958, in Silno, Pomeranian Voivodeship) is a Polish politician, a prominent member of the populist political party Samoobrona and a member of the Sejm (lower chamber of the Polish parliament) between 2001 and 2007.
Beger became a vice-chairman of the local Wielkopolska voivodship Samoobrona board in 1992, and served in that function until 2001, when she was elected to the Sejm as a representative for the Piła district. She gained some media attention, as well as became an object of ridicule, mostly due to her relatively low education for a member of Parliament (see below) and lack of experience with affairs of state, as well as devout support for her party's leader, Andrzej Lepper.
Beger's gained more notoriety when she was delegated by her party to serve in a special committee set up to investigate a major corruption scandal that marred the fourth term of the Polish parliament, the Rywin affair. The committee's sittings, which included hearings of witnesses, were televised live and became some of the most publicized and discussed events in Poland at their time. Beger became notorious for her unique style of conducting those and very unusual questions, and her alleged lack of knowledge or experience in many areas the committee was dealing with.
During her first term in parliament, Beger was accused of counterfeiting signatures on the lists of citizens supporting her parliamentary candidacy (required to register as a candidate in Poland). In November 2003, as the issue became pursued by a prosecutor, Beger renounced her legal immunity as a member of the Sejm, as well as was expelled from the special committee in October. Formal proceedings began only in November 2004, and extended well into Beger's second term. She was formally convicted of counterfeit on 30 June 2006 and sentence of 2 years of incarceration suspended for 5 years.
Despite the legal proceedings against her, Beger got reelected to Sejm riding on her acquired popularity. During the term, as a Samoobrona representative, she found herself a member of the parliamentary coalition supporting the Law and Justice party (PiS)-led governments of first Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and then Prawo i Sprawiedliwość chairman, Jarosław Kaczyński.
The coalition was marred by tensions between its members, and finally collapsed when Andrzej Lepper, the leader of Samoobrona, repeatedly vowed that he and his party would not support the budget proposition approved by the Council of Ministers. This led to Kaczyński deposing Lepper of his post of deputy prime minister, but at the same time in need of parliamentary majority to support the government. As none of the remaining parties present in the Sejm would, or could, replace the Samoobrona in supporting Kaczyński's cabinet, PiS had to resort to convince individual Samoobrona representatives to defect from the party in order to vote in favor of the government, which led to accusations of unethical dealing on their side.
On 26 September 2006 the TVN television channel broadcast, as a part of the "Teraz My" (Now We) show, footage recorded by Beger using a hidden camera, of her in an informal conversation with government minister Adam Lipiński, discussing possible nomination Beger could receive for defecting from Samoobrona to support and remain in the government coalition. The talks, initiated by Beger, involved the possibility of acquiring a government post. Support with current legal proceedings against her, as shown on tape, were rejected by government minister Adam Lipiński.
In an opinion poll conducted immediately after the footage was revealed, 66% of the respondents defined PiS politicians' actions as "political corruption" and the same percentage demanded the Kaczyński government to resign. Beger filed a motion for prosecution against PiS. Another poll showed that 58% of Poles see the actions as a provocation of political opponents, rather than explicit "corruption". [1]
In the 2007 early parliamentary elections, called after the final collapse of the coalition government, Samoobrona failed to pass the 5% electoral threshold, required to be represented in the Sejm. Therefore, along with her party colleagues, Renata Beger is no longer a member of the Polish parliament.
Renata Beger is one of the most known, as well as controversial, politicians in Poland, not only for her political activity, but also for her personality traits. She is often very frank in her opinions. In her first term in parliament, in an interview for the Super Express tabloid, she expanded on her sexual life with her husband, and declared she loved sex "like horse liked oats". Her attempts at formal speeches were often failed due to gaffes such as calling United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan Annan Kofan on TV. Beger was frequently ridiculed by satirists and some artists, including singers and bands such as Paweł Kukiz or Big Cyc recording songs devoted to her.
Beger famously skipped a sitting of her special parliamentary committee in order to attend a recording of a popular talk show as a celebrity guest. Over time, Beger became a popular celebrity, appearing in TV programmes and displaying a more cultivated image, including her participation in a charity fashion show as a model or in a TV dance show.
Beger formally has only basic secondary education, and did not even have the matura upon being elected for the first time. Her matura exam in 2004 was widely publicized in the media - she got a 2 (lowest passing grade) in Polish and 4 in geography. She then went on to become an extramural student of the faculty of political science at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
The Polish People's Party is an agrarian political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
Andrzej Zbigniew Lepper was a Polish politician, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, and the leader of Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland political party.
From 1989 through 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.
Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland is a nationalist, socialist, populist, and agrarian political party and trade union in Poland. The party promotes agrarian socialist and Catholic socialist economic policies combined with a left-wing populist, anti-globalization and anti-neoliberal rhetoric. The party describes itself as left-wing, although it stresses that it belongs to the "patriotic left" and follows Catholic social teaching. The party is sympathetic to Communist Poland, which led political scientists to label the party as neocommunist, post-communist, and far-left.
Law and Justice is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. Often considered to be a Christian nationalist party, the party is widely seen by political scientists, historians, and the general public as being the de facto political proxy of the Polish Catholic Church. It has attracted widespread international criticism and domestic protest movements by dismantling liberal-democratic checks and balances.
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.
Presidential elections were held in Poland on 9 October and 23 October 2005. The outgoing President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, had served two five-year terms and was unable to stand for a third term. Lech Kaczyński defeated Donald Tusk to become President of Poland.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 23 September 2001 to elect deputies to both houses of the National Assembly. The election concluded with an overwhelming victory for the centre-left Democratic Left Alliance – Labor Union, the electoral coalition between the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Labour Union (UP), which captured 41% of the vote in the crucial lower house Sejm. The 2001 election is recognized as marking the emergence of both Civic Platform (PO) and Law and Justice (PiS) as players in Polish politics, while also witnessing the outright collapse of the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) and its former coalition partner, the Freedom Union (UW).
Adam Józef Lipiński, is an economist, editor and lecturer, as well as a founder of the Law and Justice party in Lower Silesia.
The 2006 Polish local elections were held in two parts. with its first round on November 12 and the second on November 26, 2006. In the election's first round, voters chose 39,944 gmina councillors, 6,284 powiat councillors and 561 deputies to provincial voivodeship sejmiks. Additionally, 2,460 city and town mayors, borough leaders and other officials were decided by direct or runoff elections in the second round. The elections were seen as a test to the government of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, whose coalition between his own Law and Justice party and its junior coalition partners, the Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland and the League of Polish Families, had undergone a severe crisis two months prior.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 21 October 2007, after the Sejm voted for its own dissolution on 7 September. The election took place two years before the maximum tenure of four years, with the previous elections having been in September 2005. The early elections were a result of serious allegations of massive corruption on the part of Andrzej Lepper, leader of the Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland, whose party served as a junior coalition partner to the government of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński. All 460 seats in the Sejm and all 100 seats in the Senate were up for election.
Patriotic Self-Defence was a minor political party in Poland. The party was founded in September 2006 by former members of the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, who left the party following an argument with the leader of Self-Defence Andrzej Lepper. The party ran in the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, where it tried to take votes from their former party by using a similar name, logo and political program. Ultimately, the party's electoral lists were only accepted in one electoral district. The party won 0.02% of the nationwide vote. It disbanded in 2013.
Elżbieta Renata Jakubiak is a Polish politician, sports and tourism minister in the government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, was head of the Polish President's Cabinet with the rank of secretary of state, and deputy to the Sejm sixth term of office.
Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015 for the eighth term of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, which ran from 12 November 2015 until 2019.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 13 October 2019. All 460 members of the Sejm and 100 senators of the Senate were elected. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) retained its majority in the Sejm, but lost its majority in the Senate to the opposition. With 43.6% of the popular vote, Law and Justice received the highest vote share by any party since Poland returned to democracy in 1989. The turnout was the highest for a parliamentary election since the first free elections after the fall of communism in 1989. For the first time after 1989, the ruling party controls one house, and the opposition the other.
The Agreement, formally known as Jarosław Gowin's Agreement, is a centre-right political party in Poland.
The United Right is a conservative political alliance in Poland. It came to power following the 2015 parliamentary election.
Self-Defence Rebirth is a Polish political party founded by the former Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland activists. The party was founded by the former lawyer of Andrzej Lepper, Henryk Dzido, who split off from the main Self-Defence party following numerous scandals and the electoral collapse of Samoobrona. Self-Defence Rebirth was also created over concerns that Samoobrona might form a coalition with the right-wing League of Polish Families. Zbigniew Witaszek is one of the key activists of the new party. The party describes itself as Catholic socialist, agrarian socialist, Soft Eurosceptic and left-wing.
Peasants' Party is a Polish political party founded by the former Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland activists in 2018. The party was registered in April 2018 by Krzysztof Filipek, a long-time vice-chairman of Samoobrona, who seceded from Samoobrona for the regionalist Party of Regions in 2007 before founding the Peasants' Party. The party includes former MPs and agrarian activists of Self-Defence such as Danuta Hojarska and Renata Beger. The party announced that it would not run independently in elections, and started cooperating with agrarian trade unions and sought coalitions with left-wing parties. In August 2018, the party entered an agreement with the left-wing Democratic Left Alliance to run on the party's electoral list.