Jerzy Szmajdziński, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJerzy Szmajdziński
Polish politician
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Wrocław, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
About Jerzy Szmajdziński
- Jerzy Andrzej Szmajdzinski (Polish pronunciation: ['j??? ?maj'd?i?sk?i], April 9, 1952 – April 10, 2010) was a Polish politician who was a Vice-Marshal of Polish Sejm and previously served as Minister of Defence.
- He was a candidate for President of Poland in the 2010 election. Szmajdzinski graduated from the Wroclaw University of Economics.
- In the 1970s and 1980s he was an activist for the Federation of Socialist Unions of Polish Youth and the Socialist Union of Polish Youth, serving as its chairman from 1986–1989.
- He remained a member of Polish United Workers' Party from 1973 until its end in 1990.
- Later, he entered the leadership position of the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland party.
- In December 1999, he became the deputy chairman of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). He became a member of the Sejm in 1990, and in his second term Szmajdzinski was chairman of the National Defense Committee and in the third term a deputy chairman of that commission.
- He was Minister of National Defence from October 19, 2001 to 2005.
- He was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 gaining 20,741 votes in 1 Legnica district, candidating from SLD list. On a national SLD convention in December 2009 he was chosen as the party's candidate in the 2010 presidential elections in Poland.
- His candidacy received 11% of the votes in March's pre-election poll. Szmajdzinski died, on the day after his 58th birthday, in the plane crash that also involved President Lech Kaczynski and 94 others.
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