Krzysztof Kononowicz was a 2006 candidate for the office of mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Białystok during the local elections

Polish local elections, 2006

The 2006 Polish local elections were held in two parts. with its first round on November 12 and the second on November 26, 2006. In the election's first round, voters chose 39,944 gmina councillors, 6,284 powiat councillors and 561 deputies to provincial voivodeship sejmiks...

 in 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...

. He attracted some notoriety for his purposely unsophisticated political advertisement, first aired on local TV and featured heavily on YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

.

In 2006, Krzysztof Kononowicz, a 43 year-old driver-mechanic and pig farmer living with his widowed mother Leonarda, became a candidate of the electoral committee Podlaskie of the 21st Century (Podlasie XXI Wieku). Several weeks before the elections, Adam Czeczetkowicz, activist of the fringe far-right Polish National Party

Polish National Party

The Polish National Party is a fringe nationalist and ultra-conservative political party in Poland led by Leszek Bubel. It was registered on March 22, 2004...

 (supported by the party leader Leszek Bubel), convinced him to run for mayor and make the advertisement. Within several days, over 3 million Internet users had seen the commercial on YouTube, posted by Kononowicz's electoral committee. The video also made it to Polish national TV. Soon merchandise (including the characteristic sweater supposedly belonging to Kononowicz) were being sold on the Internet.

Kononowicz won only 1,676 votes (1.9%), but became by far the most remembered person of the 2006 elections, featured as guest in several television shows. He became a popular Internet meme

Internet meme

The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...

 in Poland in the late 2006 and early 2007. He was also voted "personality of the year" in the poll by the Polish web portal

Web portal

A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....

 Onet.pl

Onet.pl

Onet.pl is the largest Polish web portal. It is owned by the Kraków-based Grupa Onet.pl S.A. It was founded in 1996 by Optimus company. According to Alexa rankings, as of December 2007, it is the 45th most popular website worldwide and the 3rd most popular site in Poland.Onet is currently owned by...

. In several interviews, he stated that he wants to be a candidate for the President of Poland at the next election, while Czeczetkowicz's representatives said they wanted him to be a candidate for the post of mayor of Warsaw

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...

.

It is unclear if Kononowicz himself was aware, in the beginning, that his newly-established "popularity" was highly derogatory. The leading Polish politician Donald Tusk

Donald Tusk

Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....

 called him "an unfortunate man". Foreign commentators said he was "like Borat

Borat

Borat Sagdiyev is a satirical fictional character invented and performed by English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen...

, except not acting but the real thing".

In March 2007, Kononowicz was accused by his neighbours of abusing

Elder abuse

Elder abuse is a general term used to describe certain types of harm to older adults. Other terms commonly used include: "elder mistreatment," "senior abuse," "abuse in later life," "abuse of older adults," "abuse of older women," and "abuse of older men."...

 his elderly mother. Both mother and the son denied the accusations, but the police investigated. The investigation ended two months later and Kononowicz was cleared of all charges.

External links

Kononowicz's official website

• Kononowicz gallery, Gazeta Wyborcza
  Gazeta Wyborcza
  Gazeta Wyborcza is a leading Polish newspaper. It covers the gamut of political, international and general news. Like all the Polish newspapers, it is printed on compact-sized paper, and is published by the multimedia corporation Agora SA...
  
  , November 10, 2006 Cała kupa Kononowiczów, o2
  O2
  O2, o2, O2, or O2 may refer to:- Companies :* O2 Global Network, an international network for sustainable design* O2TV, a Russian independent socially-political TV channel...
  
  , January 1, 2007 A Kononowicz fan site Another Kononowicz fan site