Janusz Korwin-Mikke
Encyclopedia
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) is a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
conservative liberal
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
political commentator and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. He is the leader of the Congress of the New Right
Congress of the New Right
Congress of the New Right is a conservative liberal political party in Poland. It was founded on 25 March 2011 by Janusz Korwin-Mikke from the merger of Freedom and Lawfulness with the Real Politics Union.- Ideology :...
, which was formed in 2011 from Freedom and Lawfulness
Freedom and Lawfulness
Freedom and Lawfulness , abbreviated to WiP, was a free market-emphasizing conservative political party in Poland. It was composed of conservatives, libertarians, and monarchists. Janusz Korwin-Mikke was the party leader and founder....
, which he led from its formation in 2009, and the Real Politics Union
Real Politics Union
The Real Politics Union , abbreviated to UPR, was a free market-emphasizing conservative political party in Poland. It was composed of conservatives, libertarians and monarchists...
, which he led from 1990–97 and 1999–03.
Life
Janusz Ryszard Korwin-Mikke studied at the Faculty of Mathematics and (simultaneously) Faculty of Philosophy of the Warsaw University. In 1965 he was detained by the communist authorities, while studying psychology, law and sociology. In 1968 he was again arrested and relegated from the university for his participation in students' protests. He passed master's examination without attending a course (philosophy).In years 1969–74 he was a researcher in the Institute of Motor Transport (Instytut Transportu Samochodowego), and then at the Warsaw University. Political commentator. In 1978 he established "Liberal Publishing House" (Oficyna Liberałów), an underground publishing house.
From 1962 until 1982 he was a member of the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne), a puppet party subordinate to the communist authorities. In August 1980 he supported the political strike of the Szczecin Shipyard workers, and later he was an adviser of NSZZ Rzemieślników Indywidualnych "Solidarność" (The Independent Craftsmen's Union). After the imposition of martial law
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
he was interned but later released. In 1987 he was elected the chairman of a liberal-conservative political party called Ruch Polityki Realnej (The Real Politics Movement), which in 1989 changed its name to Unia Polityki Realnej (UPR, The Real Politics Union). In 1990 he established a new weekly Najwyższy Czas!
Najwyzszy Czas!
Najwyższy Czas! is a Polish liberal conservative sociopolitic weekly news magazine, published since March 31, 1990 by Oficyna Konserwatystów i Liberałów, owned by Janusz Korwin-Mikke and connected with the Union of Real Politics. This magazine focuses on promoting liberalism in economy and...
("The Time is Now!").
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
appointed him to become a member of Solidarity's advisory body - Komitet Obywatelski (The Civic Committee).
Korwin-Mikke was a Member of Parliament during the first term of Sejm (Polish Parliament) of the Third Republic of Poland.
Originator of the vetting resolution. He was a candidate for the UPR in the Polish Presidential Election of 1995, obtaining 2.4% of the vote. He was also candidate in 2000 when he got 1.43% of the vote. In the senate by-election in Wrocław in April 2004 he got 18% votes, but finally did not receive the seat. In the presidential elections of 2005
Polish presidential election, 2005
-External links:**] ]**...
he obtained 1.4% of the vote.
Janusz Korwin-Mikke's economic views are radically liberal, in the classical sense of the word; in the U.S. his views would be best described as libertarian conservative
Libertarian conservatism
Libertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism , includes political ideologies which meld libertarianism and conservatism...
. He frequently refers to such figures as Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
, Frédéric Bastiat
Frédéric Bastiat
Claude Frédéric Bastiat was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost.-Biography:...
, Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
or Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
.
Politically, he is an advocate of monarchy and a member of the Conservative-Monarchist Club
Conservative-Monarchist Club
The Conservative-Monarchist Club is a Polish organization of traditionalist, counter-revolutionary and Catholic character. It was founded on 7 March 1988 as a society. The doctrine of the club can be characterized as integralist conservatism...
. He is known for his disdain towards democracy.
In 2009 he left UPR and created a new party, Freedom and Lawfulness
Freedom and Lawfulness
Freedom and Lawfulness , abbreviated to WiP, was a free market-emphasizing conservative political party in Poland. It was composed of conservatives, libertarians, and monarchists. Janusz Korwin-Mikke was the party leader and founder....
.
Korwin-Mikke is a popular public figure in the mass-media and on the internet, mainly due to often unusual or eccentric ways of demonstrating his political stances. For instance, he protested against high taxes in Poland by eating his tax return together with a Polish musician Krzysztof Skiba
Krzysztof Skiba
Krzysztof Skiba is a Polish musician, song writer, satirist, essayist and actor. In 1983 cofounder of anarchy organization Ruch Społeczeństwa Alternatywnego . In 1988 cofunded a rock band Big Cyc...
in front of the Polish revenue service office.
He writes the most popular blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
in Poland .
Janusz Korwin-Mikke has been a national champion in bridge, and a member of the national team. He is also a skilled chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player .
Polish presidential election of 2010
Janusz Korwin-Mikke was a presidential candidate in Polish presidential elections of 2010. On 2 June 2010, an unscientific internet poll conducted by TVN24 news network's website showed 22% voter support for Korwin-Mikke, effectively placing him at the second spot next to Bronisław Komorowski (with 35% votes) and Jarosław Kaczyński (19% votes), with 431,000 total votes. In most opinion polls, however, his support was around 2-3%.In the real voting, Korwin-Mikke received 2.48% of votes and didn't get into the second round.
Publications
- Naprawić Polskę? No problem! (Fix Poland? No problem!) 2004
- Podatki - Czyli rzecz o grabieży (Taxes - about robberyRobberyRobbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
) 2004 - Dekadencja (DecadenceDecadenceDecadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...
) 2002 - Ekonomikka (Economikks) 2001
- Rok 2007 (Year 2007) 2001
- Niebezpieczne ubezpieczenia (Dangerous insuranceInsuranceIn law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
s) 2000 - Vademecum ojca (Father's vademecum) 1997
- Wizja parlamentu w nowej konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (Vision of parliamentParliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
in new Polish constitutionConstitutionA constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
) 1994 - Prowokacja? (Provocation?) 1991
- "Rząd rżnie głupa" - czyli mowy sejmowe (GovernmentGovernmentGovernment refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
playing dumb – Parliament speeches) 1993 - Nie tylko o Żydach (Not Only About Jews) 1991
- Ratujmy państwo (Let Us Save the Country) 1990
- Bez impasu (Without impasse)
- Kto tu dymi? (Who is making smoke here?) 2007
- Rusofoby w odwrocie (Russophobes in retreat) 2009