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Mateusz Jakub Morawiecki (Polish: [maˈtɛuʂ ˈjakup mɔraˈvjɛt͡skʲi] ⓘ; born 20 June 1968) is a Polish economist, historian and politician who served as the prime minister of Poland between 2017 and 2023.
- Overview
- Early life and career
- Politics and premiership
Mateusz Morawiecki (born June 20, 1968, Wrocław, Poland) is a Polish banker, economist, and politician who served as prime minister of Poland (2017–23). Morawiecki, who had been serving as deputy prime minister and finance minister and minister of development in the Law and Justice (PiS) government, led by Beata Szydło, replaced her as prime minist...
Morawiecki grew up in Wrocław in southwestern Poland. His father, Kornel Morawiecki, a theoretical physicist, was an anti-communist dissident as a student, an early member of Solidarity, and the founder of Fighting Solidarity, a radical offshoot of Solidarity that refused to compromise with Poland’s communist government. In 1990 he sought the Polish presidency but failed to obtain the 100,000 signatures necessary to get him on the ballot. In 2010 he was on the ballot but did not garner enough support to advance to the second round of voting. Finally, in 2015, he was elected to the Sejm.
Morawiecki followed his father into Fighting Solidarity and also became involved in an independent students’ union. His political activism resulted not only in his arrest but also in him being beaten by communist security officers. He earned a degree in history at the University of Wrocław (1992), but this was just the first stage of what would be Morawiecki’s extensive formal academic journey. He also studied business administration at Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the Central Connecticut State University (1993), earned an MBA degree from Wrocław University of Economics (1995), studied European Law and Economics of European Integration at the University of Hamburg (1995–97), was awarded a Master of Advanced European Studies degree at the University of Basel (1995–97), and completed the Advanced Executive Program at Northwestern University. In the process, Morawiecki became fluent in German and English.
While pursuing his education, Morawiecki also began his professional career in 1991. His first job was with Cogito Co., a Zabrze, Poland-based company that specialized in supplying spare parts for earth-moving vehicles. From 1993 to 1996 he worked in the publishing industry, principally with ENTER Marketing-Publishing in Wrocław. In 1995 he served as an intern with Deutsche Bundesbank, and in 1996–97 he held a position at Goethe University of Frankfurt in Frankfurt am Main. In 1998 he began his career as banker, working from that year until 2015 for Bank Zachodni WBK, a Polish bank owned by the Spanish financial group Banco Santander, SA. In 2001 Morawiecki became a member of the management board of Bank Zachodni WBK, and in 2007 he was named the bank’s CEO.
In the meantime, Morawiecki served as deputy director of the Accession Negotiations Department in the Committee for European Integration in 1998. In that capacity he helped negotiate conditions for Poland’s accession to the European Union (EU). From 1998 to 2001 he sat on the supervisory boards of the Industrial Development Agency and the Electricity Board in Wrocław. At this time he also tried his hand at electoral politics, serving as a councillor in the nascent Lower Silesia Regional Assembly.
Throughout the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, Morawiecki remained independent politically, choosing not to join a political party. In 2010, however, he acted as an economic advisor to Donald Tusk of the liberal Civic Platform (PO) party when Tusk (who became president of the European Council in 2014) was prime minister of Poland. In 2015 Morawiecki was appointed minister of economic development in the cabinet of the majority government formed by the PO’s principal political rival, the conservative PiS, after its sweeping victory in that year’s legislative election. Morawiecki’s appointment was not completely out of the norm for the PiS, which, during its tenure in power in 2005–07, had employed three finance ministers whose approach to the economy was arguably more akin to that of the PO. The addition of Morawiecki to the cabinet was widely seen as an attempt to calm international investors who had become anxious about the populist PiS’s efforts to re-Polonize a national economy that had been heavily dependent on foreign investment since the fall of communism in 1989. Beyond his familiarity with international finance, Morawiecki came into office committed to deregulation, private entrepreneurship, and the development of smart technologies.
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Owing at least partly to the efforts of Morawiecki, who became the finance minister and who joined the PiS in 2016, the Polish economy thrived during the two years of the government led by Szydło, growing at an annual rate of 4 percent in 2017. Moreover, unemployment registered at an impressively low 7 percent. As a result, Szydło’s government was widely popular with Poles. Nonetheless, it was embattled. Its attempts to reform the judiciary by removing standing judges and bringing the appointment of new judges under legislative control were criticized at home (with large street protests) and abroad. The EU in particular took issue with the proposed changes, characterizing them as undemocratic and as undermining the rule of law.
Opposition by Pres. Andrzej Duda stalled judicial reform, but revised legislation that had been framed by Duda was adopted by the Sejm in December 2017. That month, former prime minster Kaczyński, the de facto leader of the PiS, oversaw a cabinet reshuffle in which Morawiecki, who had added deputy prime minster to his list of responsibilities in September 2016, replaced Szydło as prime minister. In addition to leading the government, Morawiecki retained portfolios as finance minister and minister of development. Many pundits believed that Kaczyński was convinced that the polished, cosmopolitan Morawiecki was better equipped to win favor with the EU than Szydło, who remained in the cabinet as deputy prime minister. In addition to navigating vehement EU opposition to Poland’s judicial changes, Morawiecki was faced with the challenge of defending the government’s refusal to adhere to EU policy regarding the acceptance of migrants and refugees fleeing turmoil in Africa and the Middle East.
As prime minister, Morawiecki strove to advance his party’s advocacy of traditional family-oriented Roman Catholic values, but he continued to meld that conservative agenda for Polish society with a more typically leftist approach to the economy that further expanded social welfare programs that particularly benefited the PiS’s rural and small-town base. Meanwhile, Morawiecki oversaw the government’s ever-tightening control of the judiciary and the media. Yet, even as Poland moved increasingly in the direction of the autocratic “illiberal democracy” established by Viktor Orbán in Hungary, the Polish economy continued to hum admirably.
A list of prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the educational institutions they attended. As of July 2024, of the 58 prime ministers to date, 31 were educated at the University of Oxford (including 13 at Christ Church), and 14 at the University of Cambridge (including six at Trinity College). Three attended the University of Edinburgh ...
Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a former bank chairman in the Santander Group, was tapped Thursday to take charge of the Polish government as it gears up for parliamentary elections in 2019,...
Jul 9, 2024 · The new cabinet breaks records when it comes to the number of ministers and secretaries of state who went to comprehensive school. Sky News looks at the educational background of each of Sir Keir ...
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Mar 20, 2023 · Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. It is the oldest university in Germany and one of the most renowned in Europe. The Polish Prime Minister delivered a speech at Heidelberg University.
He attended the University of Wrocław and extended his education at the University of Hamburg and University of Basel. He obtained degrees in arts, business administration and advanced studies. From 1996 to 2004, Morawiecki lectured at the Wrocław University of Economics, as well as from 1996 to 1998 at the Wrocław University of Technology.
