Maciej Giertych
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Maciej Giertych (born March 24 1936 in Warsaw) is a Polish politician with conservative outlook towards society and in favor of state intervention in the economy. Member of the Sejm (between 2001 and 2004) and a current Polish member of the European Parliament (since 2004). He was a candidate in the 2005 Polish presidential elections, but withdrew from the race because of low support.
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Biography
Maciej Giertych was born March 24, 1936 in Warsaw, to a notable politician of the National Democracy movement Jędrzej Giertych. In 1945 his family left Poland for Germany and finally settled in the United Kingdom. In 1954 Giertych passed his final school exams and entered Oxford University. He received the BA and MA in dendrology. Between 1958 and 1962 he studied at the University of Toronto, where he received his PhD for studies on tree physiology.
In 1962 Giertych returned to Poland, where he completed his qualifications for an assistant professorship at the Institute of Dendrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Kórnik near Poznań. In 1964 he married Antonina née Janik. In 1970 he received his Habilitation degree for his studies on forest genetics at the Agricultural University of Poznań. Since 1976 he has lectured at the Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń. He has also published more than 200 works and studies, mostly on forest-related topics. The same year he also became a member of the Forest Sciences Committee of the PAN.
In 1981 he received the grade of common professor. In 1986, three years after Martial law in Poland ended, he joined the advisory council (Rada Konsultacyjna) made up of opposition members and party officials set up by the leader of the communist authorities, Wojciech Jaruzelski. The council included several prominent Poles such as Marek Kotański, Krzystof Skubiszewski and Kazimierz Dejmek.
In 1986 Giertych also became the Polish representative to the International Union of Forest Research Organisations. He supported strengthening ties with the Soviet Union in accordance with Roman Dmowski's ideology, while criticizing some dissidents for working too closely with western politicians, which he believed would jeopardize Poland's western borders.
After the fall of communist rule in Poland in 1990 he returned to scientific work and between 1993 and 2000 was an advisor to the Ministry of Environmental Affairs. In 1990 he was a member of one of the minor political parties, the National Party of Poland (Stronnictwo Narodowe), which eventually entered the League of Polish Families (LPR) coalition.
On September 23, 2001, Giertych was elected to the Polish Parliament from a Poznań constituency. On June 16, 2004, he became a Member of the European Parliament for the LPR. Together with the rest of his party he is a member of the Independence and Democracy faction.
Giertych comes from a famous Polish nationalistic political family: he is the grandson of Franciszek Giertych and son of Jędrzej Giertych, and father of Roman Giertych, who currently leads the LPR.
Views
Maciej Giertych opposes lifting the ban on purchase of land in Poland by foreigners (due to fears of resurgence of German colonialism), homosexualism and moral relativism. He criticized and opposed Poland's entry into the European Union and supports closer ties with Eastern European countries, as well as defending Polish industry against what he regards as unfair practices of western companies. He is also against the proposed European Constitution.
Giertych supports a version of creationism that attributes creation of universe, life and its further development to an act of God's will. In the tradition of medieval theology of the Scholastic school, he once calculated Noah's Ark capacity. He is an honoury member of the Daylight Origins Society, a British based creationist organisation.