Maciej Giertych

Maciej Marian Giertych (born March 24 1936 in Warsaw) is a Polish social conservative politician of the League of Polish Families (LPR). He favours state intervention in the economy. He was a member of the Sejm (between 2001 and 2004) and a current Polish member of the European Parliament (since 2004). He was a candidate in the 2005 Polish presidential elections, but withdrew from the race because of low vote results (circa 3%).

Biography

Maciej Giertych was born March 24, 1936 in Warsaw, to a notable politician of the nationalist National Democracy movement Jędrzej Giertych. In late 1945 his family left Poland for post-war Germany's British zone and finally settled in the United Kingdom. In 1954 Giertych passed his final school exams and entered Oxford University. He received the BA and MA in forestry. Between 1958 and 1962 he studied at the University of Toronto, where he received his PhD for studies on tree physiology.

In 1962 Giertych returned to Poland, where he completed his qualifications for an assistant professorship at the Institute of Dendrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Kórnik near Poznań. In 1964 he married Antonina née Jachnik. In 1970 he received his Habilitation degree for his studies on forest genetics at the Agricultural University of Poznań. Since 1976 he has lectured at the Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń. He has also published more than 200 works and studies, mostly on forest-related topics. The same year he also became a member of the Forest Sciences Committee of the PAN. In 1981 he received the grade of "associate professor" and in 1990 of full professor.

Giertych opposed communism and all forms of socialism but supported the alliance of Poland with Russia. He criticized the Solidarity movement and supported introducing martial law in Poland as a means of preventing Russian intervention.Fact|date=March 2007

In 1986 Giertych joined the advisory council (Rada Konsultacyjna) made up of opposition members and party officials set up by the leader of the communist authorities, Wojciech Jaruzelski. The council included several prominent Poles such as Marek Kotański, Krzysztof Skubiszewski and Kazimierz Dejmek, but also leading members of the communist party. That same year, he also became the Polish representative to the International Union of Forest Research Organisations. He supported strengthening ties with the Soviet Union in accordance with Roman Dmowski's ideology, while criticizing some dissidents for working too closely with western politicians, which he believed would jeopardize Poland's western borders.

After the fall of communist rule in Poland in 1990, he Giertych continued his scientific work; between 1993 and 2000 he was an advisor to the Ministry of Environmental Affairs. In 1990 he was a member of one of the minor political parties, the National Party of Poland ("Stronnictwo Narodowe"), which eventually entered the League of Polish Families (LPR) coalition.

On September 23, 2001, Giertych was elected to the Polish Parliament from a Poznań constituency. On June 16, 2004, he became a Member of the European Parliament for the LPR. Together with the rest of his party he sits as a Non-attached Member.Giertych comes from a famous Polish nationalist political family: he is the grandson of Franciszek Giertych and son of Jędrzej Giertych, and father of Roman Giertych, who currently leads the LPR.

Political views

Maciej Giertych opposed lifting the ban on purchase of land in Poland by foreigners (due to fears of resurgence of German colonialism), homosexuality and moral relativism. He criticized and opposed Poland's entry into the European Union. He has supported closer ties with Eastern European countries (especially Russia), as well as defending Polish industry against what he regards as the unfair practices of western companies. He is also against the proposed European Constitution. In general the views of Maciej Giertych are in line with the ideology of Radio Maryja, a media group and political-religious channel of conservative parties in Poland.

In the European Parliament, on July 4, 2006, Giertych opposed the negative view of Spanish Nationalists' uprising lead by Francisco Franco that brought about the Spanish Civil War, stating that " [t] he fact that Communism did not take root in the West is largely thanks to the victorious civil war fought by traditional Spain against Communist governments." Martin Schulz, German SPD politician, cried out: "Nazi!" after Giertych's address Fact|date=January 2007. During his discourse Giertych however had explicitly condemned National Socialism and insisted Mussolini and Hitler also had an "atheistic and socialistic taste about them". He also praised Antonio Salazar and Eamon de Valera in the same address to the European Parliament.

In February 2007, Giertych sparked outrage among European Union officials and Jewish organizations by publishing a brochure called " [http://giertych.pl/ksiazka2/Civilisations_at_war.pdf Civilizations at war in Europe] " that claimed that Jews "are biolgically different" and "create their own ghettos" because they supposedly prefer to separate themselves from others. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/827423.html Polish EU legislator's anti-Semitic booklet sparks outrage - Haaretz - Israel News ] ] . A number of journalists and certain Jewish organizations considered the brochure to be anti-Semitic.

During the European Parliament's session on 14 March 2007, Parliament's President [ [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/president/defaulten.htm?press_releases The President of the European Parliament ] ] Hans-Gert Pöttering reprimanded Maciej Giertych for the content of his pamphlet in accordance with Rule 147 of the EP's Rules of Procedure. He said that the publication was "a serious breach of fundamental rights and, in particular, the dignity of human beings to which our institution so strongly adheres". Mr Pöttering dissociated the Parliament from the work saying that it had made no financial contribution to its publication. Several members of the Parliament have joined with the European Jewish Congress in calling for an investigation of the publishing of the pamphlet and whether Parliament funds were involved. "Dateline World Jewry", April 2007, World Jewish Congress]

Creationist views

Giertych supports a version of creationism that attributes the creation of the universe, life, and its further development to an act of God's will. He is an honorary member of the Daylight Origins Society, a creationist organisation based in the United Kingdom.

In his foreword to Gerard Keane's 1999 book "Creation Rediscovered", Giertych documented how his views changed from assuming evolution is true to being skeptical of it.cite web
url= [http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/creation/gjkeane/foreword.html
title=Creation Rediscovered, by Gerard J. Keane; Foreword by Professor Maciej Giertych
author =Maciej Giertych
publisher=TAN Books & Publishers, Rockford, IL
date=1999
accessdate=2008-09-08]

In 2006, Giertych rebutted the accusation [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/444265d.html] that he advocated teaching creationism in schools. He stated, "I am a scientist — a population geneticist with a degree from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of Toronto — and I am critical of the theory of evolution as a scientist, with no religious connotation." [ cite web
title=Creationism, evolution: nothing has been proved
author=Maciej Giertych
url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/444265d
publisher=Nature 444, 265
date=15 November 2006
accessdate=2008-09-08]

As a skeptic, Giertych refers to what he called the "growing evidence against evolution." [http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/1797] Verify credibility|date=September 2008 Giertych asserts that his genetics studies led him to examine the claims that evolution is supported by genetics and found them wanting. [http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/1711] Verify credibility|date=September 2008

On October 11, 2006, Giertych introduced and moderated a pro-creationist seminar held in Brussels for members of the European Parliament; The title of the presentation was "Teaching evolutionary theory in Europe. Is your child being indoctrinated in the classroom?" This seminar resulted in negative attention being drawn to Giertych (and to the Daylight Origins SocietySyn|date=September 2008) in an anti-creationist report of the National Center for Science Education cite web |title = Devolution and Dinosaurs, The Anti-Evolution Seminar in the European Parliament |date= 2006 |url= http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/rncse_content/vol26/6633_devolution_and_dinosaurs_the__12_30_1899.asp |author= Ulirch Kutschera |publisher =National Center for Science Education |accessdate= 2008-09-07] as well as in Nature, a weekly British science journal. cite web | title= A timely wake-up call as anti-evolutionists publicize their views | author= Ulrich Kutschera |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7120/full/444679a.html | date= 2006-12-07| publisher=Nature International Weekly Journal of Science| accessdate = 2008-09-07]

ee also

* Polish presidential election, 2005
* Radio Maryja
* antisemitism
* [http://dakowski.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=49 Civilisations at war in Europe]

References

External links

* [http://giertych.pl/ personal website] (Polish & English)
* [http://www.lpr.pl/ League of Polish Families] (Polish)
* [http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=416 Maciej Giertych – "Poland above all!"]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20060704+ITEM-004+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN&query=INTERV&detail=2-016 Maciej Giertych – Speech in European Parliament, 4 July 2006, about the Spanish Civil War]
* [http://www.researchintelligentdesign.org/wiki/Skeptics Skeptics: scientists who are skeptical of the claims of Darwinism, abiogenesis or macroevolution]
* Nature 444, 406-407 (23 November 2006) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/444406a; Published online 22 November 2006: Anti-evolutionists raise their profile in Europe