Aleksander Kwasniewski

Aleksander Kwaśniewski , 1954-, Polish politician, president of Poland (1995-), b. Bialogard. He studied economics at the Univ. of Gdańsk, joined the Communist party at 23, and was an organizer of the Socialist Union of Polish Students during the late 1970s. He was the editor of ITD (1981-84) and of Sztandar Mlodych (1984-85), both youth-oriented party newspapers, where he earned a reputation as a moderate reformist thinker. When martial law was declared (1981) and many left the party, he remained and served (1985-89) as the government's minister of youth and sports. In 1991, after the collapse of the Communist party, Kwaśniewski, whom some have called pragmatic and others have dubbed an opportunist, was a founder of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), a social democratic party. In 1991 he became a member of parliament, and the SLD's victory in the 1993 elections were largely due to his skills. In 1995, promising to ease the problems caused by Poland's abrupt shift to a free-market economy, he was elected president, narrowly defeating Lech Wałęsa ; he was reelected in 2000.

Kwasniewski, Aleksander (14 Nov. 1954). President of Poland, 1995–  Born in Bialogard, he studied transport economics at Gdansk University. He joined the ruling Communist Party in 1976, and became a leading member of the party's student league. He continued to move up the party's ranks, and in 1985 he entered the government as Minister for Youth Affairs. In 1988–9 he was a member of the Round Table in which the government negotiated with the opposition and ultimately relinquished its power. In 1990 he became head of the reformed Communists, now renamed the Social Democratic Party. For the 1995 presidential elections, he headed a coalition of left-wing parties and narrowly won against Lech Wauuletsa. Despite his Communist past, the reformist, youthful leader did much to reconcile the country's new political elites with former Communist circles and a more conservative agricultural population. In 2000 he was re-elected in the first round, with 53.9 per cent of the vote.