Bronisław Komorowski

Biography

Bronisław Komorowski was born in 1952 in Oborniki Śląskie, the son of a University of Warsaw professor of African studies, and grew up near Warsaw. Active for years in the Scout movement, he graduated in history from the University of Warsaw in 1977 and then worked as an editor at the journal Słowo Powszechne.

In the communist years he was an underground publisher and worked with Antoni Macierewicz on the monthly Głos. He was jailed for a month in 1980 for organising an independence-day demonstration, worked for the Solidarity union's research centre and was interned under martial law. After 1989 he served in the defence ministry, as deputy minister from 1990 to 1993.

He entered the Sejm in 1991 for the Democratic Union and later moved through the Freedom Union and the Conservative People's Party within Solidarity Electoral Action. From 2000 to 2001 he was minister of national defence, and in 2001 he joined Civic Platform. He became deputy marshal of the Sejm in 2005 and its marshal in November 2007.

When President Lech Kaczyński died in the Smolensk air crash on 10 April 2010, Komorowski became acting president. As Civic Platform's candidate he beat Jarosław Kaczyński in the July run-off and was sworn in on 6 August 2010. His term saw close cooperation with Donald Tusk's government and strong support for Ukraine after 2014. He lost his bid for re-election to Andrzej Duda in May 2015 and left office that August.