Tadeusz Mazowiecki - The Later Years

The Later Years

A conflict with Lech Wałęsa resulted in disintegration of Citizens' Parliamentary Club that represented solidarity camp. The Citizens' Parliamentary Club was divided into Centre Agreement, which supported Walesa, and ROAD, which took sides with Mazowiecki. That conflict lead both politicians to compete in presidential election at the end of 1990. Mazowiecki, who during Solidarity times was an advisor to Lech Wałęsa and strike committee in Gdańsk's shipyard, stood against Walesa in election and lost to him. He did not even join the second round (he gained support of 18.08% of people - 2 973 364 votes) and was defeated by Stanisław Tymiński, an exotic candidate from Canada.

Since 1991, Mazowiecki became a chairman of Democratic Union (later Freedom Union), from 1995 – he was its honorary president. Together with Jan Maria Rokita, Aleksander Hall and Hanna Suchocka he represented Christian Democratic Wing of the party.

He was removed from his position because of the criticism from the left side of the Freedom Union (Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, Barbara Labuda), who accused Mazowiecki of indecisiveness, indolence in making decisions and excessive conservatism. Between 1989 and 2001 Mazowiecki was a representative to the Polish Parliament (first from Poznań, later from Cracow).

In 1992, he was elected the Special Emissary of United Nations Organization to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1995, he resigned because of the idleness of great powers concerning war crimes in Bosnia, especially the assassination of few thousand men and boys in Srebrenica done by Serbian soldiers. He announced in his report breaking of human rights by all participants of this conflict.

Mazowiecki was a Member of Parliament in first, second and third term (member of Democratic Union, later the Freedom Union. During the National Assembly (1997) he introduced compromise preamble of Polish constitution (previously written by founders of Tygodnik Powszechny (Universal Weekly), which was accepted by the National Assembly. In November 2002, he left the Freedom Union, in the protest against abandoning Christian Democratic International and electoral and local coalition with Democratic Left Alliance and Self Defense party in Warmian-Masurian Region.

In 2005, he became one of the founders of the Democratic Party - democrats.pl - created through expanding the former Freedom Union by new members, especially young people and few left wing politicians. He was a leader on the parliamentary list in parliamentary elections in Warsaw constituency in 2005 with 30143 votes. The highest number of votes he gained in Żoliborz district, and the lowest in Rembertów. Until 2006, he was the leader of its Political Council. Currently he lives in Warsaw.

Mazowiecki received numerous awards. An honorary degree from the universities in: Leuven, Genoa, Giessen, Poitiers, Exeter, Warsaw University and University of Economics in Katowice. He also received the Order of White Eagle (1995), Golden Order of Bosnia (1996), Légion d'honneur (1997), Srebrnica Award (2005), the Giant award (1995) awarded by Gazeta Wyborcza (Election Gazette) in Poznań and Jan Nowak-Jezioranski Award (2004). In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.

He is member of the Club of Madrid.

He is a fervent supporter of a more united Europe.