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Mateusz Morawiecki

Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland, Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, is a Polish politician and manager, former CEO of Bank Zachodni WBK.

Mateusz Morawiecki was born on June 20, 1968, in Wroclaw. His mother Jadwiga is a chemist and his father Kornel Morawiecki a former opposition member. His family on his father’s side was originally from the Swietokrzyskie region, but before WWII his grandparents moved to Praga District of Warsaw, where Kornel was born.

Morawiecki is a graduate of the University of Wroclaw, Business Administration Central Connecticut State University and Wroclaw University of Technology, MBA at Wroclaw University of Economics, the European Studies at the University of Hamburg and the University of Basel, where he obtained the degree of Master of Advanced European Studies.

Since 1979, he printed underground magazine “Biuletyn Dolnoslaski” in Winciorek Family’s house in Wilczyn. Since December 1981, he took part in the opposition movement actions: he painted letterings on walls, tore down flags, distributed posters and leaflets, printed and distributed underground magazines and put up opposition banners. In 1983–1988, we was repeatedly arrested and interrogated in relation to his opposition activities. Since 1986, he published his own articles under a pseudonym in underground magazines, mainly in “Biuletyn Dolnoslaski”. In the 1980s, on several occasions he was beaten for political reasons, summoned for interrogations and subjected to house searches. He was active in Fighting Solidarity movement, set up by his father, and in the Independent Student Association.

He started his professional career at Cogito Company in 1992. M. Morawiecki worked at Enter Marketing-Publishing in Wroclaw in 1993-1996. In 1995, he completed an internship at the Deutsche Bundesbank, and from 1996 to 1997, he worked at the University of Frankfurt am Main.

In 1998, he became Deputy Director of the Accession Negotiations Department in the Committee for European Integration and was a member of the group negotiating Poland's accession to the European Union (Banking and Finance). From 1998 to 2001, he worked at Bank Zachodni, first as an advisor to the President of the Management Board, then as a Member of the Management Board and Managing Director. In June 2001, Mateusz Morawiecki became a Member of the Management Board of Bank Zachodni WBK, and he was appointed President of the Management Board in May 2007.

In 2013, he was awarded the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity for his merits for Poland's independence and sovereignty and respect for human rights. On June 23, 2015, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland for his outstanding merits in supporting and promoting Polish culture and national heritage.

Since 29 September 2016 until 11 December 2017, he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development and Finance. Since 16 November 2015 until 29 September 2016, he held the office of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development. On 11 December 2017, he was appointed Prime Minister, Minister for Development and Finance. Prime Minister since 9 January 2018.

Mateusz Morawiecki was heard making anti-Semitic remarks in secret recordings from 2013, before he rose to power. The recordings of Morawiecki complaining to friends about “greedy” and rich “Americans, Jews, Germans, Englishmen, and Swiss” that run hedge funds were published 02 October 2018 by the news site Onet. In February 2018, Morawiecki, who did not have a history of public statement about Jews, came under attack for speaking about Jewish collaborators with the Nazis in the Holocaust, equating them with the actions of Poles who collaborated with the Nazis.

During the year 2019, the government and various political parties rejected calls for broad, expedited private property restitution. Jewish groups criticized as insensitive some statements by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and other public figures about property restitution. Ruling party leaders also made statements during the year that were criticized as insensitive by Jewish groups and other observers.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-NY) on 30 Augusst 2019 urged Prime Minister Morawiecki to address troubling rollbacks in Poland’s democracy. In a letter, the leaders of the Committee expressed concerns about recent government actions to curb political freedom in Poland. “The curtailing of judicial independence and politicization of the judiciary, attacks on freedom of speech – such as laws that ban reference to some Poles’ complicity in the Holocaust – and purposeful assaults on Polish minority groups’ freedoms are examples of eroding democratic principles that threaten to undermine all of the sacrifices Poles have made to build a modern, democratic Poland,” the members wrote.

Morawiecki in the European Parliament on 19 October 2021 stated: "Three times in the 20th century, at the cost of great sacrifice, we fought for the freedom of Europe and the world. In 1920, when we saved Berlin and Paris from the Bolshevik invasion, then in 1939, when we were the first to enter into a murderous battle with Germany and the Third Reich, which had an impact on the fate of the war and finally, in 1980, when "Solidarity" gave hope for the overthrow of another totalitarianism - the cruel communist system....

"I reject the language of threats, hazing and coercion. I do not agree to politicians blackmailing and threatening Poland. I do not agree blackmail to become a method of conducting policy towards a Member State.... Increasingly, through judicial activism, decisions are made behind closed doors and there is a threat to member countries. And more and more often - it is done without a clear basis in the treaties, but through their creative reinterpretation.... We are being paternalistically lectured about democracy, the rule of law, about how we should shape our own homeland, that we are making wrong choices, that we are too immature, that our democracy is supposedly "young""

Morawiecki spoke on 29 July 2023 in Gliwice on the reconstruction and modernization of the Polish army: the strongest land army in Europe and a strong armaments industry cooperating with others. "We must have an army so strong that no other dares to attack us. We are consistently investing in the expansion of the Polish army."

Poland was one of the leaders of support for embattled Ukraine, donating military equipment and engaging in humanitarian and logistical assistance. Poland's determined actions were at the forefront of countries supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. Morawiecki said 26 January 2023. "We are building a coalition of countries so that modern tanks will allow us to end the war as soon as possible... Tanks are not for riding in parades, tanks are for supporting those fighting to defend freedom and sovereignty".