Profile of Andrzej Lepper on Famous Like Me

Andrzej Zbigniew Lepper (born June 13, 1954 in Stowięcino, Poland) is a Polish politician, leader of Samoobrona political party and Member of Parliament.

Early Years

Lepper was born in the village of Stowięcino in northern Poland. He is a farmer by trade, with no formal higher education. During the period of economic transformation his farm fell into debt and he was on the verge of bankruptcy. He founded an organisation of farmers like him and he called it "Samoobrona" (Self defense). Using populist vocabulary, committing spectacular acts of civil disobedience and taking advantage of clear mistakes of his political opponents, he managed to gain nationwide publicity and a strong following in the countryside. Quite skillfully, he created an image of himself as "the good one among crooks" who could not be corrupted and is courageous enough to tell the whole truth about the corrupt political sphere.

Political Party

In 1992 Lepper's organisation formed a new political party. As the party president he challenged Aleksander Kwaśniewski in the run for Presidency in 1995 (1.3% votes) and 2000 (3.1% votes). In the year 2000 Samoobrona organized a campaign of blocking major roads in order to get media attention. Lepper gained 3.05% votes in the presidential elections. In 2001 Lepper's Samoobrona managed to enter the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) and formed an important fraction of it. Lepper was elected from Koszalin constituency.

Political style

Samoobrona and Lepper play on the disillusionment of millions of poor citizens, living mostly in small towns and villages with high unemployment rate, who believe that they have lost out in the transition to the free market economy after 1989. For some time he had been the Vice-Speaker of Sejm but after violating time constraints on debate he was dismissed.

Among their other exploits in parliament there are such diverse incidents as using their own loudspeakers or claiming the largest opposition party Citizens' Platform met with members of the Taliban in Klewki (a small village near Olsztyn) to sell them anthrax.

Several Samoobrona members of parliament are subject to criminal investigations on charges ranging from forgery to banditism.

Recent developments

Lepper was the candidate of his party in the upcoming Polish presidential elections. He had the support of about 10% of the electorate, according to a poll conducted shortly before the election. His party received 13% of the vote and 56 seats in the Polish parliamentary election in September of 2005. In the October 2005 presidential elections, Lepper received 15% of the vote and third place, which was roughly what was expected of him.

See also:

• Polish presidential election, 2005

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