Roman Giertych

Roman Jacek Giertych (born 27 February 1971) is a Polish political figure, historian, advocate, and dissident against the PiS government.

He graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, with Master's degrees in History (1989-1994) and Law (1990-1995).

Following this, he completed his advocate apprenticeship in Warsaw in the year 2000.

His apprenticeship supervisor was Polish advocate, Zdzisław Krzemiński, an expert in family and civil law and a supporter of Endecja.

Giertych and the LPR had a strong national and anti-EU profile.

He was a member of the Sejm from 2001 to 2007 and the chairman of the League of Polish Families party.

Prior to the 2003 Polish referendum on EU membership, the LPR campaigned against it, denouncing it as a "centralised, socialist superstate".

Officially, the LPR declares that it favours a "Europe of nations".

Under Giertych's leadership, the LPR was successful in the European Parliament elections in June 2004, temporarily becoming the second-strongest Polish party with 14% of the votes.

His father Maciej Giertych was elected MEP.

In July 2004, Giertych was elected a member and vice-chairman of PKN Orlen investigation commission, which is credited, among other things, with destroying the presidential aspirations of Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz.

In the 2005 parliamentary elections, LPR gained 8% of the votes.

Giertych served in PiS government as Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of National Education from May 2006 to August 2007.

On 5 May 2006, Giertych was appointed minister of education and vice-premier, while the LPR joined a governmental coalition with PiS.

His nationalist views made the decision controversial by some.

The following day, about 100 people protested in front of the Ministry of Education against this appointment.

A couple of weeks, later almost 140 000 people signed a petition to remove him from the post.

Since 2007, he has run his law firm in Warsaw, representing clients in various high-profile cases.

He announced his intention to run for the Polish Senate in the 2023 Polish election, but after opposition infighting he decided against it.

Instead, he has been offered to be a candidate for the Polish Sejm in 2023, on KO's lists, which he accepted.

Since 2023, he is a member of the Sejm following the 2023 Polish parliamentary election from the list of Civic Coalition.

In December 2024, he was chosen to be deputy chairman of the electoral committee of Civic Coalition.

Born in Śrem, Roman Giertych comes from a family of Polish politicians, a son of Maciej Giertych and a grandson of Jędrzej Giertych.

His uncle on his father's side is Wojciech Giertych, O.P., Theologian of the Pontifical Household and professor of theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome.

Two of his aunts also entered religious life.

He spent his entire early life in Kórnik, where he finished both primary and secondary school.

In March 2007 Giertych proposed a bill that would ban homosexual people from the teaching profession and would also allow dismiss from employment those teachers who promote "the culture of homosexual lifestyle".

After leaving parliament, Giertych returned to legal practice.

He represented Ryszard Krauze, accused of dealing with a gang, in a trial in which the claim was allowed in the first instance, consequently ordering Telewizja Polska (Polish Television) and Anita Gargas to apologize to the entrepreneur.

He was also the attorney of Radosław Sikorski regarding offensive comments made on the internet forum of the weekly Wprost website.

Giertych was involved in helping the Jewish community of Góra Kalwaria to reclaim and restore a local synagogue.

In 2009, Giertych won a lawsuit brought against the publisher of the Fakt for the protection of personal rights.

The project span a period of two years, culminating in 2016.

He has been appointed as the lawyer of the head of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in an inquiry into the cooperation of Polish services with the Russian FSB.

He also represented the Tusk family.

He was Michał Tusk's attorney in his successful case against Fakt daily, as well as in the case concerning a stone thrown through a window of Michał Tusk’s apartment.

In addition, Giertych was also Katarzyna Tusk's attorney in a trial, resulting in an apology on the Fakt website, ordered by the Court of Appeal in Warsaw.

He represented Donald Tusk in cases before prosecutors, the Amber Gold Investigation Committee and the VAT Investigation Committee.

Giertych also represented Gerald Birgfellner in a case against the company Srebrna and his dispute with Jarosław Kaczyński; as well as acted on behalf of Leszek Czarnecki in the case of the so-called KNF scandal and in the case of the so-called GetBack scandal.

In 2017, he won a case before the Supreme Court related to the liability of publishers for the content of comments made under articles on websites.