Polish justice minister named among Europe’s shapers in 2018
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
08.12.2017 12:29
Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro has been included on a list of 28 people who are expected to “shape Europe” next year.
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro (standing second from right), pictured in Poland's parliament on Thursday. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski
The ranking, compiled by the Politico news organisation, lists Ziobro in 14th place.
According to Politico, Ziobro is “the second-most powerful politician in Poland, ahead of the president and prime minister, behind only the country’s de facto ruler, former Prime Minister and current PiS party leader Jarosław Kaczyński.”
This is because Ziobro “is in charge of the ruling party’s most important political effort: the overhaul of what the party describes as a corrupt and ineffective judicial system,” Politico said.
Forty-seven-year-old Ziobro studied law and administration at the Jagiellonian University in the southern Polish city of Kraków. He served as justice minister in 2005-2007. In 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament, receiving the second highest number of votes in the country. After parliamentary elections in Poland in 2015, he again took over as justice minister. He also became prosecutor general in early 2016.
The No. 1 on the Politico list is Christian Lindner, the leader of Germany’s liberals, who “occupies a key place in Germany’s politics: at the head of a conservative, Euro-cautious segment of the electorate.”
According to Politico, “By pulling the plug on coalition talks in November, Lindner cast his country into political turmoil and ensured his place at the center of the ensuing debate.” (mk/gs)