Grzegorz Juliusz Schetyna (; born 18 February 1963) is a Polish politician who was Leader of Civic Platform and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

from 26 January 2016 to 25 January 2020. He has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland from 2014 to 2015, Marshal of the Sejm from 2010 to 2011,

Acting President of Poland Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its Enactment (psychology), enactment by an actor who adopts a Character (arts), character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the Mimesis, mi ...

2010, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2009 and Minister of the Interior and Administration 2007 to 2009. He has been a Member of the Sejm from 1997.

Early career

In the early 1990s, Schetyna co-founded a commercial broadcaster, Radio Eska, and chaired the

Śląsk Wrocław Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław (), is a Polish professional Association football, football club based in Wrocław that plays in , the second level of the Polish football leagu ...

basketball team in 1994–97.

Political career

Early beginnings

In the late 1980s, Schetyna headed the

University of Wrocław The University of Wrocław (, UWr; ) is a public research university in Wrocław, Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researcher ...

’s branch of the Independent Students’ Union, the student arm of the

Solidarność Solidarity (, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" ( , abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”''), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard, Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Polish People's Rep ...

(Solidarity) trade-union movement, before holding a series of posts in the Liberal-Democratic Congress and then the Freedom Union party in the 1990s, along with

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk (born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since 2023, previously holding the office from 2007 to 2014. Tusk served as the president of the European Council (20 ...

and several other key figures in Polish politics. When Tusk co-founded Civic Platform in 2001, Schetyna became secretary-general. Schetyna was first elected to the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

as a candidate of the Freedom Union in the national elections on 21 September 1997 after receiving 13 013 (3,17%) in 50

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

district. Following the 2007 parliamentary election, he served as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

and Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration under

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. As interior minister, he championed the badly needed renovation of provincial roads in Poland. In a 2009 cabinet reshuffle, he left the government abruptly amid tensions between his faction within the ruling Civic Platform party and Tusk. Schetyna was also a member of Sejm 1997–2001, Sejm 2001–2005, Sejm 2005–2007, Sejm 2007–2011. After stepping down, he moved to the post of head of the Civic Platform Sejm caucus.

Marshal of the Sejm

Following Bronisław Komorowski's victory in the 2010 presidential election, Schetyna was nominated as the Civic Platform's candidate to succeed the

President-elect An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Un ...

as the Marshal of the Sejm. On 8 July he was elected Marshal of the Sejm and thus assumed the post of the

. Schetyna served as the interim head of state until Komorowski's inauguration on 6 August 2010. Schetyna ceased being Sejm Marshal on 8 November 2011; Ewa Kopacz replaced him and later took his job as the Civic Platform's first deputy leader.

Sejm Committee on Foreign Affairs

Between 2011 and 2014, Schetyna served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Shortly after the

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on the status of

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

held on 16 March 2014, he and his counterparts of the Weimar Triangle parliaments – Elisabeth Guigou of

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and Norbert Röttgen of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

– visited Kyiv to express their countries’ firm support of the territorial integrity and the European integration of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. This was the first time that parliamentarians of the Weimar Triangle had ever made a joint trip to a third country. During Tusk's seven years in power, Schetyna tried several times to challenge him but was sidelined. By 2014, news media reported about increased rivalry and tension between him and Tusk.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

When Tusk stepped down from his position in September 2014 to become the

President of the European Council The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This Institutions of the European Union, institution comprises the college of heads of state or governme ...

, Schetyna announced he would run for leadership of the Civic Platform. This was widely seen as a direct challenge to incoming Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, as by tradition the prime minister is also party leader. For domestic political reasons Kopacz therefore decided to replace Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski with Schetyna. Unlike his predecessor in the job, Schetyna was unknown outside Poland at the time. Upon taking office, Kopacz ordered him to redraft Poland's foreign policy urgently and present it to parliament. In February 2015, Schetyna announced that Poland would be the first country to pay damages for participating in the US

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

’s secret rendition program after it was found to have hosted a facility used for illegal rendition and interrogation. In doing so, Poland followed a ruling of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

ordering it to pay former detainees Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah. In September 2015, Schetyna summoned the Russian ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreyev, after the ambassador, in an interview aired by private broadcaster ''

TVN24 TVN24 is a Polish 24-hour commercial news channel, launched on 9 August 2001. Being a part of the TVN Network, TVN24 has been owned since 2018 by US-based media company Warner Bros. Discovery ( Discovery, Inc. before 2022). It gained broade ...

'', said Poland was partly responsible for

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

invading in 1939 because it had repeatedly blocked the formation of a coalition against Berlin in the run-up to the conflict.

Leader of Civic Platform

As Civic Platform chairman, Schetyna and the party’s other lawmakers occupied the main hall in parliament from mid-December 2016 and mid-January 2017 over the ruling PiS party’s plans to limit media access and a vote on the budget which the Civic Platform said was held illegally. He also led the party’s campaign for the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

by warning that the ruling eurosceptic PiS party could eventually lead the country out of the EU. Ahead of the 2019 national elections, Schetyna led his party’s move to join forces with two small, liberal groupings and announced Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska as their candidate for prime minister. In January 2020, Schetyna announced that he won't stand in the 2020 Civic Platform leadership election and endorsed Tomasz Siemoniak. On 25 January 2020 his successor, Borys Budka, was elected.

References

, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Schetyna, Grzegorz 1963 births Civic Platform politicians Deputy prime ministers of Poland Ministers of foreign affairs of Poland Interior ministers of Poland Heads of state of Poland Living people Marshals of the Sejm of the Third Polish Republic Members of the Polish Sejm 2005–2007 Members of the Polish Sejm 1997–2001 Members of the Polish Sejm 2001–2005 Members of the Polish Sejm 2007–2011 Members of the Polish Sejm 2011–2015 Members of the Polish Sejm 2015–2019 Members of the Polish Sejm 2019–2023 People from Opole Polish Roman Catholics Acting presidents of Poland Members of the Senate of Poland 2023–2027