Democratic opposition activists in communist Poland, leader of Fighting Solidarity, Senior Marshal of the Sejm and father of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki - Kornel Morawiecki has passed away at the age of 78 - the Prime Minister's Chancellery informed on Monday.
Kornel Morawiecki was born in 1941 and became a physicist by education. He also founded and was a leader of the Fighting Solidarity.
He was a father of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
On Friday, September 27, Kornel Morawiecki was awarded the Order of the White Eagle for his achievements in public and state service by President Andrzej Duda.
In January, 2019, Kornel Morawiecki was taken to hospital with symptoms of jaundice. Medical examination revealed that the Senior Marshal had pancreatic cancer.
Founder of Fighting Solidarity
For the first time, Kornel Morawiecki stood up against the Polish People's Republic's (PRL) government in 1968, by taking part in the so-called March events. In the late 1970s, he got involved in democratic opposition in Wrocław. He was an editor of "Biuletyn Dolnośląski" - an underground newspaper.
After 1980, he was an activist of Solidarity in Wrocław, and after the introduction of martial law, he was hiding.
In 1982, after a schism in underground Solidarity, Morawiecki stood at the helm of the Fighting Solidarity.
He was arrested in November, 1987. In that period, the PRL authorities' policy was not to keep political prisoners, Morawiecki was deceitfully forced to leave the country.
A few months later, he secretly returned to Poland. As the leader of the Fighting Solidarity, he criticised the Round Table talks and called for boycott of the June 4, 1989 election. His formation demanded fully free elections.
After 1990, he headed the Freedom Party.
In 2010, he ran in the presidential election, and in 2015, he became an MP, as a candidate of the Kukiz'15 movement. He was the Senior Marshal of the Sejm of the eighth term. He left Kukiz'15 in 2016 and founded the Free and Solidary party.
Kornel Morawiecki was Law and Justice's candidate for senator in the October 13, 2019 election, running in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP