Roman Jacek Giertych (; born 27 February 1971) is a Polish political figure and

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...

. Giertych served in a PiS-led government as Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of National Education from May 2006 to August 2007. He was a member of 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' ...

from 2001 to 2007 and the chairman of the

League of Polish Families The League of Polish Families ( Polish: ''Liga Polskich Rodzin,'' , LPR) is a social conservative political party in Poland, with many far-right elements in the past. The party's original ideology was that of the National Democracy movement whic ...

party and, in 1989, founder of the Polish nationalist and

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

organization

All-Polish Youth The All-Polish Youth () refers to two inter-linked Polish far-right ultranationalist List of youth organizations, youth organizations, with a Political Catholicism, Catholic-nationalist philosophy. Its agenda declares that its aim is "''to raise ...

. Since 2007, he has run his

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

in Warsaw, representing clients in various high-profile cases. He is a member of the Sejm again, effectively for KO, since late 2023. In mid-2025, he also joined the KO parliamentary groups major subsidiary party, Platforma Obywatelska.

Early life

Born in

Śrem Śrem () is a town on the Warta river in central Poland. It is the seat of Śrem County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. As of 1995, the population of Śrem was 29,800. Śrem is to the south of Poznań, a local road junction on the road from ...

, Roman Giertych comes from a family of Polish politicians, a son of

Maciej Giertych Maciej Marian Giertych (, born 24 March 1936 in Warsaw) is a Polish dendrologist and former far-right politician of the League of Polish Families (LPR). He favours state intervention in the economy. He was a member of the Sejm (between 2001 an ...

and a grandson of

Jędrzej Giertych Jędrzej Giertych (7 January 1903 – 9 October 1992) was a Polish right-wing politician, journalist and writer. Biography Jędrzej Giertych was born in Sosnowiec on 7 January 1903, the son of Franciszek Giertych (1868–1938), an engineer. ...

. His uncle on his father's side is Wojciech Giertych, O.P.,

Theologian of the Pontifical Household In the Roman Catholic Church, Theologian of the Pontifical Household () is a Roman Curial office which has always been entrusted to a Friar Preacher of the Dominican Order and may be described as the pope's theologian. The title was formerly known ...

and professor of theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'' in Rome. Two of his aunts also entered

religious life Consecrated life (also known as religious life) is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life (religious and sec ...

. He spent his entire early life in Kórnik, where he finished both primary and secondary school. He graduated from

Adam Mickiewicz University Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam si ...

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

, with

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

s in History (1989-1994) and Law (1990-1995). Following this, he completed his

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

in Warsaw in the year 2000. His apprenticeship supervisor was Polish advocate, Zdzisław Krzemiński, an expert in

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

and civil law and a supporter of Endecja.

Political career

Giertych and the LPR had a strong national and anti-EU profile. Prior to the 2003 Polish referendum on EU membership, the LPR campaigned against it, denouncing it as a " centralised, socialist superstate". Officially, the LPR declares that it favours a "Europe of nations". Under Giertych's leadership, the LPR was successful in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

elections in June 2004, temporarily becoming the second-strongest Polish party with 14% of the votes. His father

was elected MEP. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, LPR gained 8% of the votes. In July 2004, Giertych was elected a member and vice-chairman of PKN Orlen investigation commission, which is credited, among other things, with destroying the presidential aspirations of

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (, born 13 September 1950 in Warsaw) is a Polish politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland for a year from 7 February 1996 to 31 October 1997, after being defeated in the Parliamentary elections by the Solidarity ...

Minister of Education

On 5 May 2006, Giertych was appointed minister of education and vice-premier, while the LPR joined a governmental coalition with PiS. His nomination was largely controversial because of his nationalist and authoritarian views. The following day, about 100 people protested in front of the Ministry of Education against this appointment.IU: Nie dla Giertycha!
, Inicjatywa Uczniowska,

Indymedia The Independent Media Center, better known as Indymedia, is an open publishing network of activist journalist collectives that report on political and social issues. Following beginnings during the 1999 Carnival Against Capital and 1999 Seat ...

Poland, 6 May 2006 A couple of weeks, later almost 140 000 people signed a petition to remove him from the post. In March 2007 Giertych proposed a bill that would ban homosexual people from the teaching profession and would also allow dismiss from employment those teachers who promote "the culture of homosexual lifestyle".

Later activity

The PiS-led coalition collapsed in mid-2007, triggering strife between the former partners. After losses in the elections of late 2007, Giertych stood down as leader of the LPR and left the party in 2009, which had already been deserted by most adherents such as

Krzysztof Bosak Krzysztof Bosak (, born 13 June 1982) is a far-right Polish politician. He serves as the Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. He was a member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Sejm for the League of Polish Families from 2005 ...

and Robert Winnicki. Giertych became an active opponent of former coalition partner PiS. He declared numerous times to vote for PO, co-founded several political initiatives and established himself as a busy investigator of embezzlement charges against PiS cadre, while he is perceived critically in parts of the liberal public. Although Giertych changed party allegiance, he largely remains a proponent of

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

politics, as is seen in his stance on abortion. He announced his intention to run for the Polish Senate in the 2023 Polish election, but he decided against it after the left-wing Nowa Lewica strongly opposed to him. Instead, he has been offered to be a candidate for the Polish

in 2023, on KO's lists, which he accepted. Since autumn 2023, he is a member of the

following the

2023 Polish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 15 October 2023 to elect members of the Sejm and Senate of Poland, Senate. A 2023 Polish referendum, referendum containing four questions concerning economic and immigration policy of the government ...

from the list of Civic Coalition. In January 2024, he was chosen to be deputy chairman of an investigation committee of the Civic Coalition parliament faction. In 2025, he joined the liberal

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 ...

Legal career and legal issues

After leaving parliament in 2007, Giertych returned to legal practice. His legal practice was perceived as a way to keep in touch with politics, for he mostly served public figures in cases with high media attention. He represented entrepreneur Ryszard Krauze, accused of dealing with a gang, in a trial in which the claim was allowed in the first instance, consequently ordering

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; TVP), also known in English as Polish Television, is a Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster in Poland, founded in 1952. It is the oldest and largest Polish television network. After 2015, when the right-wing po ...

(Polish Television) and Anita Gargas to apologize to the entrepreneur. Also, he was the attorney of

Radosław Sikorski Radosław Tomasz Sikorski (; born 23 February 1963), also known as Radek Sikorski, is a Polish politician, journalist and statesman who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland since 2023, previously holding the office between 2007 and ...

in a suit regarding offensive user comments on the website of

Wprost ''Wprost'' (, meaning "Directly") is a Polish weekly news magazine published in Poznań, Poland.Góra Kalwaria to reclaim and restore a local synagogue. He was the lawyer of the then head of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in an inquiry into the cooperation of Polish services with the Russian FSB. He also represented the Tusk's family. He was Michał Tusk's attorney in his successful case against yellow press daily Fakt, as well as in a case concerning damage to property. Giertych was also Katarzyna Tusk's attorney in a trial, resulting in an apology of Fakt. He represented Donald Tusk in cases before prosecutors, the Amber Gold Investigation Committee and the VAT Investigation Committee. Giertych also represented Austrian businessman Gerald Birgfellner in a case against the development company ''Srebrna'' ("Silver") and an affiliated dispute with

Jarosław Kaczyński Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician. He co-founded the Law and Justice (PiS) party in 2001 with his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński, and has served as its leader since 2003. He served as Prime Minister of Pola ...

, as well as Leszek Czarnecki in two cases. In 2009, Giertych himself won a lawsuit brought against the publisher of the Fakt for the protection of personal rights. In 2017, he won a case before the Supreme Court concerning the liability of website publishers for user comments. The deputy prosecutor general Bogdan Święczkowski filed a motion against Giertych to the bar's disciplinary court to punish him for criticism he had expressed towards

Zbigniew Ziobro Zbigniew Tadeusz Ziobro (; born 18 August 1970) is a Polish politician. He served as the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Poland in the Cabinet of Mateusz Morawiecki until 27 November 2023. He previously served in the same role from Octo ...

and the prosecutor's office in late 2016. Giertych stated that this procedure had been motivated politically. In 2020, it was dismissed.

Polnord trial

On 15 October 2020, Giertych was detained on accusations of money laundering. He, together with 12 other suspects, was accused to have trepanned 92 Mio. Złoty via fictitious obligations in 2014 out of real estate company Polnord, a former key player on the Polish market. The operation was represented to have benefited, among others, then-shareholder Ryszard Krauze, a fellow suspect and legal client of Giertych, who is a former billionaire struggling with bankruptcy since about 2010. On 20 July 2020, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

mirrored a statement of the Polish National Bar Council indicating that defense lawyers acting in politically sensitive cases were intensively screened by the authorities. Giertych, together with fellow lawyers Jacek Dubois and Mikołaj Pietrzak, filed a complaint against Zbigniew Ziobro and his deputy to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In late December 2021, Associated Press revealed that according to Canadian NGO

Citizen Lab The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Canada. It was founded by Ronald Deibert in 2001. The laboratory studies information controls that impact the openness an ...

, the phone Giertych used in 2019 was infected by the

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

spy tool. In February 2022, Giertych spoke at a public hearing in the European Parliament about, among other things, the abuse of Pegasus in Poland. On 29 March 2022, the Court did not consent to the temporary arrest demanded by the prosecutors due to alleged high probability of guilt. On 29 April 2022, the Regional Court in Lublin upheld the decision of a lower instance. In June 2022, the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

urged the European Commission to take a firm stance against the repression of political dissidents, as whom it identified Giertych. In July 2022, the European Commission published a report on the state of the rule of law in Poland that agreed with the aforementioned opinion. Before the fall elections of 2023, Giertych largely stayed in Italy, where he owns a mansion. Critics argued that he was evading

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

while staying abroad. He campaigned remotely and reappeared in public during the swearing-in ceremony. In January 2025 the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin announced the discontinuation of the investigation concerning Giertych, while 8 out of 12 other suspects still await trial.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giertych, Roman 1971 births Living people People from Śrem Polish Roman Catholics League of Polish Families politicians Christian creationists Polish male non-fiction writers 21st-century Polish lawyers Polish nationalists Members of the Polish Sejm 2001–2005 Members of the Polish Sejm 2005–2007 Deputy prime ministers of Poland Education ministers of Poland Members of the Polish Sejm 2023–2027