How a former communist became Polish Sejm speaker and why his term is to bring conflict
Włodzimierz Czarzasty from the Left party has become the new Marshal (Speaker) of the Polish Sejm, which was a requirement of the coalition agreement.
The parties that formed the governing coalition in December 2023 – Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition, the Left and Szymon Hołownia’s Poland 2050 – agreed that the Marshal would be appointed not for a full four-year term but only for two years, with a planned replacement halfway through the political cycle.
Despite being pre-planned, this rotation still looks almost sensational. It is the first time in two decades that a politician from the left-wing spectrum has been appointed to such a top political position.
Read more about Poland’s new Sejm Speaker and what to expect from him in the article by Biełsat journalist Michał Kacewicz: A communist at the head of the Sejm: why the appointment of the new speaker angered the Polish opposition.
The vote in the Sejm for Włodzimierz Czarzasty’s candidacy took place amid shouts from MPs of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party: "Communist! Communist!"
There could hardly be a clearer reference to the new Speaker’s past.
Włodzimierz Czarzasty is a fairly typical representative of the younger generation of the PZPR (the Polish United Workers’ Party, the communist party that ruled Poland until 1989).
He made his career in the 1980s within student organisations linked to the communist authorities (similar to the Soviet Komsomol). He joined the "adult" party in 1983 – the worst and darkest period, two years after Wojciech Jaruzelski imposed martial law.
This was a time when no one had any illusions left about the brutal and dictatorial nature of the communist regime.
Czarzasty remained a member of the PZPR until the very end, when the party was dissolved in 1990.
After the fall of the Polish People’s Republic, Czarzasty rather quickly found his place in democratic left-wing circles. For a time, he was even a member of the Democratic Union – a party that grew out of the anti-communist opposition.
But in the 1990s, the future Marshal primarily focused on business. He founded the publishing house Muza and worked in the media sector.
In the late 1990s, Czarzasty once again moved closer to left-wing political circles. President Aleksander Kwaśniewski appointed him to the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) – a state body overseeing electronic media with significant authority over TV licensing.
It soon became clear that Czarzasty had become the grey eminence of the KRRiT, effectively dealing the cards in the media sector as he saw fit.
At that time, the peak of the left’s strength in Poland, a major scandal erupted, which ultimately led to the downfall of the left and the government of Leszek Miller. Two new political forces rose: Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform and Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice.
In 2016, Czarzasty became head of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which later joined other parties to form the United Left, bringing 49 MPs into the Sejm.
In the 2023 elections, the New Left under Czarzasty won only 26 seats, but still entered the ruling coalition.
This allowed the left to return to government and gave Czarzasty the Marshal’s chair, even if only for two years.
For the right-wing opposition, Law and Justice and Confederation, the new Marshal will certainly not be an easy opponent.
Czarzasty has announced that he will use "the Marshal’s veto." Such a legal concept does not formally exist, but it means he will simply block and refuse to consider bills he deems harmful.
On issues such as abortion, women’s rights, and the role of the Church, Czarzasty is firmly and unapologetically left-wing.
He will undoubtedly focus on Sejm work and domestic politics.
But his true passion is politics and now he will have a chance to prove himself during a particularly challenging period, as Poland slowly begins gearing up for the 2027 election campaign.