Artur Zawisza

He wrote his thesis on the philosophy of history in the historical fiction of Teodor Jeske-Choiński (1854–1920), the theorist of anti-Semitism as "national self-defence" in Poland, whose books were banned during the Communist era.

He also took philosophy courses at university and would later give his occupation as "philosopher" in his Sejm years.

His father, Jerzy, was a Home Army soldier in Western Polesia in 1944 and a member of the anti-Communist resistance.

Artur Wojciech Zawisza (, born 30 March 1969 in Lublin ) is a Polish far-right politician and biogas plant industrialist.

His mother (d. 1983) is buried in the Evangelical section of the Lipowa Street cemetery in Lublin.

While attending the Jan Zamoyski High School No. 2 in Lublin (1984–1988) Zawisza served as a unit leader in the Zawisza Association of Catholic Scouting, based on the work of the French Jesuit Jacques Sevin, where his stated goal was to "train cadres for a free and Catholic Poland".

In 1988, he was admitted to the Catholic University of Lublin and joined the Vade Mecum Academic Club of Socio-Political Thought, a student debating organisation adhering to the National-Democratic tradition.

He later served as a president of the club.

After the club's patron, Wiesław Chrzanowski, established the Christian National Union (ZChN) party in 1989, Zawisza became a member.

He worked with the party leader for Lublin, Włodzimierz Blajerski, who considered making Zawisza his deputy but found him too radical.

In his university years Zawisza made contact with Derek Holland, formerly of the British National Front, a founding leader of the neo-fascist International Third Position in 1989; Zawisza was remembered sporting a Celtic cross badge gifted by Holland.

He has been a member of the pro-Russian Conservative-Monarchist Club since the early 1990s.

Zawisza graduated with a Master's degree in Polish studies in 1993.

Walendziak, who had served as the CEO of Polish Television (TVP), a State Treasury company, from 1993 to 1996, was notable for having elevated a group of young conservative Catholic radicals of staunch neoliberal persuasion (known derisively as "the Pampers boys", among them Wojciech Cejrowski) to prominence in the public media.

During his time as Walendziak's top staffer, Zawisza was placed by his party as an advisor on the executive board of the Universal Pension Society (Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne, PTE), a subsidiary of the Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń (PZU).

In 1995, Zawisza became an assistant to Marek Jurek, the then president of the National Broadcasting Council, with whom he organised the extreme-right faction in Christian National Union.

In 1997 he was offered the position of editor-in-chief in Nasz Dziennik, the prospective press organ of the political Catholic Radio Maryja station, known for its anti-Semitism, by its Redemptorist owner Tadeusz Rydzyk.

Zawisza moved from Lublin to Warsaw for the job but Rydzyk rescinded the offer.

From 1997 to 1999, Zawisza was the chief of staff for the Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland Wiesław Walendziak in the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) government of Jerzy Buzek.

PZU, a key State Treasury company and Poland's main insurance provider, was privatised in November 1999 through the sale of 30% of its shares to the consortium of Eureko and BIG Bank Gdański dominated by the Opus Dei member Jorge Gonçalves's Banco Comercial Português.

From 1999 to 2000 Zawisza served as the general secretary of Christian National Union (1999–2000), under the presidency of Marian Piłka (1996–2000).

He served as a Sejm member of the Law and Justice party (2001–2007) and was subsequently the vice-president of the Libertas Poland (2009–2014), National Movement (Poland) (2014–2018) and Federation for the Republic (2018–2019) parties.

He has been the president of the Union of Producers and Employers of Biogas and Biomethane Industry (UPEBBI) nationwide syndicate since 2021.

In 2001 he was appointed an advisor to the minister of culture and national heritage Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski.

He sat on the board of the charitable foundation Crescendum Est Polonia set up by the billionaire Aleksander Gudzowaty.

In 2001 he was involved in founding a new political party called the Right Alliance, with Jurek, Walendziak, Piłka, Ujazdowski, Mariusz Kamiński, Michał Kamiński and Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz as the other co-founders.

He was elected to the 2001–2005 Sejm from the Warsaw II district as a Law and Justice deputy in the same year with 10,093 votes, and served on the economy and public finance committees.

He was also the president of the Polish-Irish Parliamentary Group.

After the merger of the Right Alliance with Law and Justice on 2 June 2002, he took a seat on the national executive of Law and Justice.

He was among the minority of party members in opposing the 18 January 2003 proclamation that called for a vote to join the European Union in the 2003 referendum.

A Sejm investigation in 2005 uncovered the transfer of 200m zł from State Treasury companies to fund the Catholic TV station Telewizja Familijna and evidence of corruption behind the choice of the Portuguese partners.

The project of a Catholic TV station funded by PZU and other State Treasury companies had originated in the circle of Walendziak, an Opus Dei sympathiser, and was realised strictly in parallel with the privatisation of the PZU.

Zawisza was not interviewed by the investigative committee.

In the 2005 Polish parliamentary election Zawisza retained his Warsaw II seat.

Between 9 November 2005 and 6 June 2006, he chaired the Sejm economy committee.

On 12 May 2006 he was appointed chair of the parliamentary committee investigating the transformation and oversight of the banking sector since 1989.

In March 2007 he wrote to the minister of justice Zbigniew Ziobro to demand an investigation into the antifascists who had disrupted a white supremacist public rally held by National Revival of Poland, Zadruga and Blood & Honour in Wrocław.

On 19 April 2007, after the Sejm rejected a bill proposal introducing the protection of human pre-natal life into the Constitution of Poland, he left Law and Justice along with the then Marshal of the Sejm Marek Jurek and Małgorzata Bartyzel, and co-founded Jurek's new party, Right Wing of the Republic, on the following day.

On 15 May he was voted to be replaced by Adam Hofman as chair of the investigative committee.

Zawisza unsuccessfully contested the pre-term 2007 Polish parliamentary election on the League of Polish Families ballot (per electoral agreement with Right Wing of the Republic).