POLAND'S ELECTIONS:<br>Maciej Giertych – "Poland Above All!" <br> (1-2%)

06.10.2005
POLAND'S ELECTIONS:
Maciej Giertych – "Poland Above All!"
(1-2%)

Simon Araloff, AIA European section


Maciej Giertych: Polska est wazniejsza!

The rumors of a possible exit of professor Maciej Giertych from the presidential race are multiplying in Polish political circles. At the same time, sources in the leadership of the League of Polish Families declare that the professor will fight up to the end. Anyway, the results of the latest polls show that Poles don't trust the person whose pre-election slogan sounds almost the same as the known slogan of the German fascists - "Poland above all!" ("Polska est wazniejsza!").

Maciej Giertych was born on March 24, 1936, in Warsaw, into the family of the well known Polish politician, historian and publicist, Jedrzej Giertych. The grandfather of the future candidate for the presidential post, Franciszek Giertych, was a wealthy businessman, who during the period between the two World wars financed the activity of the Polish nationalist organization, Liga Narodowa. During the same period his son, Jedrzej Giertych, the father of Maciej, engaged in vigorous political activity, aimed at the construction of a"strong Poland" on a base of nationalism and Catholic traditionalism. Jedrzej Giertych is known, among other things, for his active struggle against so-called "Jewish-mason conspiracies". After WW II, he wrote a number of historic books in which he explained Polish anti-Semitism by economic reasons. He also asserted that Silesia is a historic Polish territory and that 2 million Germans expelled from there after the WW II- is an exaggerated figure.
Thus, Maciej Giertych was born and grew up in an atmosphere of Polish nationalism and orthodox Catholicism. During 1945-1962 he emigrated and returned to Poland at the age of 26. By this time Giertych already had an impressive academic career – studies at the Universities of Oxford (1954-1958) and Toronto (1958-1962) and a Doctoral degree in the field of dendrology (the section of botany studying wood plants.)
The most interesting part is that after returning to communist Poland, Maciej Giertych did not meet with any difficulties. By that time the fact of returning from the West to a communist country represented a political act. Permission to return was received only by individuals, especially when the question concerned a family such as Giertych. The governments of the countries of the Warsaw bloc always intended to use such events for propaganda purposes. So in the case of young Maciej Giertych it is possible that he agreed to some kind of cooperation with the Polish communist authorities in exchange for permission to return home.
At any rate , since 1962 Giertych worked in the Institute of dendrology of the Polish Academy of sciences, located near the city of Poznan. In 1970 he began work at the Agricultural Academy in Poznan where in 1981 he received the rank of Associate judge professor (profesor nadzwyczajny), and in 1990 the rank of usual professor (profesor zwyczajny). His scientific activity can be defined as extremely productive and successful. He is the author of more than 200 scientific publications on dendrology and agriculture, a member of the scientific councils of various organizations and the Ministries of Poland, a member of the editorial staff of various scientific editions. In addition, since 1967 Giertych has been a member of the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO), and during 1986-1995 he was a part of the International Council of this organization, and in 1997 was awarded a IUFRO Distinguished Service Award.
The political career of Maciej Giertych began long ago in the Fifties, when he created Polish Students Club in Oxford (1955-1958), and then was the active participant of the work of a similar club at the University of Toronto (1958-1962). Already in the second half of the Eighties Giertych actively participated in the political activity of Catholic structures of Poland. On this ground in 1988 he was granted an audience with the Pope John Paul II. During the period between 1990 and 2002 he actively participated in the work of the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe), one of the main activists of which was his son, Roman Giertych.
In 2001 when on the basis of Stronnictwo Narodowe and the National-Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne) a new nationalist League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) party was created, Giertych joined it, receiving the post of vice-chairman of the Political Council (Wiceprzewodniczacy Rady Politycznej) and he was its representative to the Sejm. In the previous parliamentary term, (2001-2005) he was the deputy chairman of the Commission of environmental protection, natural stocks and forestry. In July, 2004 Giertych went from LPR to the European Parliament where at the moment he is a member of the presidium of the political group Independence and democracy.
When in the spring of 2005 a question of choosing a candidate for the presidential elections was raised in the League of Polish Families, Maciej Giertych received the total support of his colleagues in the party, the chairman of which is his son Roman. His political pre-election slogan became the expression "Poland above all!" ("Polska est wazniejsza!"), reminding the voters of the known slogan of the German Nazi "Deutschland uber alles!". Giertych's foreign policy views are a kind of symbiosis of Polish nationalism, euroscepticism and moderate Atlanticism. On one hand he declares the inadmissibility of the creation of the "Federal Republic of Europe" and the necessity to preserve "real independence of Poland", on the other he opposes participation of Polish soldiers in operations in Iraq. "We want to be the loyal ally of the United States”, - declared Maciej Giertych during the current pre-election campaign “but we do not want to participate in immoral actions, which have no moral substantiation".

ELECTIONS 2005
Poland

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