Marek Czekalski (6 June 1953 – 2 April 2021) was a Polish politician and engineer. He served as Mayor of

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

from 1994 to 1998.

Biography

After he finished his university studies at the Lodz University of Technology, Czekalski joined the and was also a member of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

. In 1978, he joined the

Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR The Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR or KSS KOR (Polish: ''Komitet Samoobrony Społecznej KOR'') was a Polish civil society group that emerged under the communist rule. It was created in 1977-1978 from the Workers' Defense Committee (''Komit ...

. In 1980, he joined the

Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...

trade union and was elected president of its textile section. After Martial law in Poland was imposed the following year, he left the union and joined its underground structures. He would organize help for those repressed for political reasons. In 1989, Czekalski became active in the

Solidarity Citizens' Committee The Solidarity Citizens' Committee (''Komitet Obywatelski "Solidarność"'', KO "S"), also known as Citizens' Electoral Committee (''Obywatelski Komitet Wyborczy'') and previously named the Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa (''Komitet Obywate ...

. The following year, he was elected to serve on the Municipal Council of Łódź and worked on the presidential campaign of

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime mini ...

. He was a part of the

Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action The Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action (''Ruch Obywatelski Akcja Demokratyczna'', ROAD) was a market-socialist and political party in Poland. The party was centrist-socialist on economic issues and conservative to moderate-conservative on ...

and became chairman of the Democratic Union in

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish language, Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province-Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź ...

, serving for two terms. In the , Czekalski became Mayor of Łódź as a member of the Freedom Union party. He restructured the municipal council two years into his term with support from the

Democratic Left Alliance The Democratic Left Alliance () was a social-democratic political party in Poland. It was formed in 9 July 1991 as an electoral alliance of centre-left parties, and became a single party on 15 April 1999. It was the major coalition party in P ...

. He served as Mayor until his term expired in November 1998. He then returned to the municipal council. Shortly before the

2001 Polish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections was held in Poland on 23 September 2001 to elect deputies to both houses of the National Assembly.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1491 The election concluded with an overwhe ...

, in which he was a

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

candidate for the Freedom Union, Czekalski was arrested for accepting a bribe from investors for plans to allow construction of a new shopping center. Criminal proceedings continued for nearly ten years before he was finally acquitted of all charges in February 2011. In 2007, Czekalski became deputy director of administration of the and held the same role at in 2010. In 2013, he joined the programming council of the . Marek Czekalski died on 2 April 2021, at the age of 67.

Distinctions

*Knight's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta , image=Polonia Restituta - Commander's Cross pre-1939 w rib.jpg , image_size=200px , caption=Commander's Cross of Polonia Restituta , presenter = the President of Poland , country = , type=Five classes , eligibility=All , awar ...

(1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czekalski, Marek 1953 births 2021 deaths Polish engineers Mayors of Łódź Freedom Union (Poland) politicians Democratic Union (Poland) politicians Polish United Workers' Party members Łódź University of Technology alumni Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta People from Łódź