Roman Giertych

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Roman Jacek Giertych (Template:IPA; born 27 February 1971) is a Polish political figure and attorney, who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of National Education from 2006 to 2007.

Giertych began his career as a far-right politician, serving in a Law and Justice-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 from 2001 to 2007 and the chairman of the League of Polish Families party as well as the founder of the All-Polish Youth organization.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After the downfall of the coalition in 2007, Giertych became a marginal politician, focusing on his law career and operating his law firm in Warsaw, representing clients in various high-profile cases.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Giertych returned to prominence after tying himself with the liberal Civic Coalition, for which he served as a lawyer before being elected to the Sejm again on its lists in 2023 and properly joining the coalition's biggest party in 2025. Following the 2025 Polish presidential election, Giertych became a leading figure in the party's election denial against president-elect Karol Nawrocki, attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the election.

Early life

Born in Śrem, Roman Giertych comes from a family of Polish politicians, a son of Maciej Giertych and a grandson of Jędrzej Giertych. His uncle on his father's side is Wojciech Giertych, O.P., Theologian of the Pontifical Household and professor of theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome.<ref name="cathculture">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="tablet">Template:Cite news</ref> Two of his aunts also entered religious life.<ref name="tablet"/>

He spent his entire early life in Kórnik, where he finished both primary and secondary school. He graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, with Master's degrees in History (1989-1994) and Law (1990-1995). Following this, he completed his advocate apprenticeship in Warsaw in the year 2000. His apprenticeship supervisor was Polish advocate, Zdzisław Krzemiński, an expert in family and civil law and a supporter of Endecja.<ref name=":0" /> Giertych also became a member of Opus Dei.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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

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.<ref name="uczniow">IU: Nie dla Giertycha! Template:Webarchive, Inicjatywa Uczniowska, Indymedia Poland, 6 May 2006</ref> A couple of weeks, later almost 140 000 people signed a petition to remove him from the post.<ref name=bezgiertycha>Template:Cite web</ref>

In March 2007 Giertych proposed a bill that would ban homosexual people from the teaching profession and would also allow the dismissal from employment of those teachers who promote "the culture of homosexual lifestyle".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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 and Robert Winnicki. Giertych became an active opponent of former coalition partner PiS.<ref name=":1" /> 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,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while he is perceived critically in parts of the liberal public. Although Giertych changed party allegiance, he largely remains a proponent of right-wing politics, as is seen in his stance on abortion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He announced his intention to run for the Polish Senate in the 2023 Polish election,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but he decided against it after the left-wing New Left strongly opposed to him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Instead, he has been offered to be a candidate for the Polish Sejm in 2023, on KO's lists, which he accepted.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since autumn 2023, he is a member of the Sejm following the 2023 Polish parliamentary election 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.<ref name=:"39">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2025, he joined the liberal Civic Platform.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Election denialism

Giertych attempted to undermine the 2025 Polish presidential election, denying the election results following the loss of his party's candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski. Giertych accused the opposition of rigging the elections<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and called for Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia to not inaugurate president-elect Karol Nawrocki,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> protesting the inauguration afterwards.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> 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 (Polish Television) and Anita Gargas to apologize to the entrepreneur.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Also, he was the attorney of Radosław Sikorski in a suit regarding offensive user comments on the website of Wprost.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Giertych was involved in helping the Jewish community of Góra Kalwaria to reclaim and restore a local synagogue.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Giertych was also Katarzyna Tusk's attorney in a trial, resulting in an apology of Fakt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He represented Donald Tusk in cases before prosecutors, the Amber Gold Investigation Committee<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the VAT Investigation Committee.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Giertych also represented Austrian businessman Gerald Birgfellner in a case against the development company Srebrna ("Silver") and an affiliated dispute with Jarosław Kaczyński,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as Leszek Czarnecki in two cases.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 and the prosecutor's office in late 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 20 July 2020, the European Commission mirrored a statement of the Polish National Bar Council indicating that defense lawyers acting in politically sensitive cases were intensively screened by the authorities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In late December 2021, Associated Press revealed that according to Canadian NGO Citizen Lab, the phone Giertych used in 2019 was infected by the Pegasus spy tool.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In February 2022, Giertych spoke at a public hearing in the European Parliament about, among other things, the abuse of Pegasus in Poland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 29 March 2022, the Court did not consent to the temporary arrest demanded by the prosecutors due to alleged high probability of guilt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 29 April 2022, the Regional Court in Lublin upheld the decision of a lower instance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In June 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe urged the European Commission to take a firm stance against the repression of political dissidents, as whom it identified Giertych.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Before the fall elections of 2023, Giertych largely stayed in Italy, where he owns a mansion. Critics argued that he was evading subpoena while staying abroad. He campaigned remotely and reappeared in public during the swearing-in ceremony.<ref>https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/roman-giertych-pojawil-sie-w-sejmie-pokazal-zdjecie-6962681425783488a</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In late June, Giertych's dismissal became effective. Now, only Krauze and Giertych's private security agent and confidant Sebastian J. were considered the main suspects. The court argued that Giertych just provided legal counsel without being aware of the major financial dealings of the given subjects. Sebastian J. was a key employee of Giertych and for some time the formal head of one of his service firms. J. is accused of heading a couple of shell corporations that enabled the Krauze group to launder siphoned Polnord capital.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>