Piotr Tomasz Krzystek (born 5 February 1973) is a Polish

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and politician. He has been the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

since 2006.

Biography

Piotr Krzystek was born on 5 February 1973, in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the

University of Szczecin The University of Szczecin () is a public university in Szczecin, western Poland. It is the biggest university in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomerania, with 33,267 students and a staff of nearly 1,200. Faculties The university consists o ...

. In 1998, he began working in city administration as the deputy inspector in the Szczecin City Hall. In May 1998, he became the deputy director of the Health Department of the Szczecin Voivodeship Office in Szczecin. From 1 January 1999 to 31 March 2002, he was the general director of the

West Pomeranian Voivodeship West Pomeranian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals , and in 2021, it was inhabited by 1,682,003 people. It was established on 1 Janua ...

Office in Szczecin. He led the team which implemented the 1999 administrative reform. From 26 November 2002 to 23 August 2004, he was the

deputy mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor and assistant mayor) is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many local governments. Duties and functions Many elected deputy mayors are members of the loca ...

of Szczecin. After leaving the office, he became a

counsel A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...

in the law firm Kancelaria Radców Prawnych Jankowski & Krzystek. From 2004 to 2007, he was the chairperson of the Association of Polish Municipalities of the Pomerania Euroregion. In 2006, he run for the office of the

of Szczecin in the

local election In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct var ...

, as a

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

candidate from the

Civic Platform The Civic Platform (, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a Centre-right politics, centre-right liberal conservative political party in Poland. Since ...

mandate. He received 41.79% votes in the first round, and 64.83% in the second round, winning the election. He was sworn in on 4 December 2006. Krzystek has officially joined the Civil Platform with the end of 2006. In 2008, the Central Anticorruption Bureau has accused Krzystek of buying a

communal apartment Communal apartments (, colloquial: ''kommunalka'') are apartments in which several unrelated persons or families live in isolated living rooms and share common areas such a kitchen, shower, and toilet. When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 aft ...

for a highly lowered price, between 1999 and 2003. He, then a general director of the Voivodeship Office, was granted the permition to buy the apartment by Władysław Lisewski, the

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The apparent was estimated to be worth 180,000

Polish złoty The złoty (alternative spelling: ''zloty''; Polish: ''polski złoty'', ;The nominative plural, used for numbers ending in 2, 3 and 4 (except those in 12, 13 and 14), is ; the genitive plural, used for all other numbers, is abbreviation: z� ...

in 2000, however Krzystek has bought it for only 32,000 Polish złoty, which was only 17.5% of its actual estimated value. In 2009, the Szczecin

District Court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...

ruled that there was no legal standing, on which basis he could have bought said apartment, and as such, ordering him to return it. He has upheld to the ruling. In 2010, the Civic Platform announced that it would not list him as its candidate in the upcoming mayoral election. In response, he has suspended his membership on 18 September 2010, and officially left the party on 27 November 2010. He was re-elected as the mayor of Szczecin in the 2010 local election. He run as a nonpartisan candidate, from his own electoral committee, the Szczecin for Generations, which cooperated with Conservative People's Party. He was again re-elected in the 2014 local elections. During the elections, he also organized the West Pomerania Nonpartisants electoral committee, which received one seat in the

West Pomeranian Voivodeship Sejmik The West Pomeranian Voivodeship Sejmik () is the regional legislature of the Voivodeship of West Pomerania in Poland. It is a unicameral parliamentary body consisting of thirty councillors chosen during regional elections for a five-year term. T ...

. In 2015, he was one of the founders of electoral committees of

Bronisław Komorowski Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who was the fifth president of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski previously served as Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Minister of National Defence ...

, who was one of the candidates in the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

. He was once again re-elected at the mayor in the 2018 local elections. As the leader of the West Pomerania Nonpartisants, he also oversaw local electoral committees of the

Nonpartisan Local Government Activists Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognitio ...

. In 2021, he was one of the founding members of the OK Poland Local Government Coalition (originally known as the ''All-Poland Local Government Coalition''), which branched off from the Nonpartisan Local Government Activists. He became its vice-chairperson. Krzystek was re-elected as the mayor of Szczecin in the 2024 elections, receiving 60.4% of the votes. He candidated from his own committee, supported by the Civic Coalition.

Private life

He is married to Małgorzata Krzystek, with whom, they have three children. In 2024, it was announced that they are in a separation. He declares himself as

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Orders and decorations

* Golden Order of Merit of the Police (2012) * Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2015) * Honorary Badge of Merit of the Local Government (2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krzystek, Piotr Tomasz 1973 births Living people 21st-century Polish politicians People from Szczecin Deputy mayors of places in Poland Politicians from Szczecin Mayors of Szczecin Civic Platform politicians Polish jurists University of Szczecin alumni Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta 20th-century jurists 21st-century jurists Polish Catholics 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics