Rafał Trzaskowski

Rafał Trzaskowski        (politician)
Born	17 January 1972 Warsaw, Poland
Nationality	Polish
Alma mater	College of Europe Natolin, University of Warsaw
Member of	European Council on Foreign Relations
Liberal Polish politician who attended 2019 Bilderberg as Mayor of Warsaw, then selected 2020 and 2025 presidential candidate. ECFR  Mayor of Warsaw In office 21 October 2018 - Present  Poland/Minister/Administration and Digitization In office 3 December 2013 - 22 September 2014  Member of the European Parliament In office 2009 - 2013 Preceded by Jana Hybášková, João de Deus Pinheiro, Mia de Vits, Lars Wohlin

Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski is a Polish politician. He publicly supports European integration, the introduction of same-sex marriage, "ecological transformation" He attended the Bilderberg for the first time in 2019 as Mayor of Warsaw, before being selected a presidential candidate.

Education

Trzaskowski attended 11th Mikołaj Rej Liceum, Marcellin College in Sydney, and Cranbrook Kingswood School, a private school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S.A. (1990–1991). He then studied international relations and English at the University of Warsaw, graduating in 1996. He subsequently graduated in European studies from the College of Europe in Natolin (1997). He was granted a scholarship at the Oxford University in 1996 as well as the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris in 2002. In 2004, he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in political science at the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Journalism and Political Science, after completing a dissertation titled "The dynamics of the European Union's institutional reform" under the supervision of Stanisław Parzymies.

Career

He was a Member of the European Parliament (2009–2013), Minister of Administration and Digitization (2013–2014) as well as the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (2014–2015). He was elected a Member of the Polish Parliament in 2015. In November 2017, it was announced that he would be the joint candidate for the Mayor of Warsaw of the Civic Platform and the Modern political party in the 2018 Polish local elections. He subsequently went on to win the elections on 21 October 2018 in the first round and was elected Mayor of Warsaw after defeating his major rival Patryk Jaki of the Law and Justice party.

In May 2020, Trzaskowski became the Civic Platform's candidate for Presidency of Poland to stand in the presidential election. He made it into the second round of the election but then went on to lose against incumbent Andrzej Duda, receiving 10,018,263 votes or 48.97% of the vote.

In April 2024, he was reelected Mayor of Warsaw. His major rivals in the election were Tobiasz Bocheński (PiS) and Magdalena Biejat (Left Together). In November 2024, he became the Civic Coalition's candidate for Presidency of Poland to stand in the 2025 Polish presidential election.

He is considered as being a member of Civic Platform's progressive wing. An analysis pointed out that "Trzaskowski's success at personifying the young, liberal urbanite that allowed him to rise to success in Warsaw, are the same values that could see his downfall elsewhere."

Covid

In July 2020, he stated that "Anyone who denies vaccinations does not belong in the 21st century". and that "I believe that vaccinations for children should be mandatory - with those vaccines that have been tested for other infectious diseases".

He administered several lockdowns during 2020-21 as Mayor of Warsaw, including forced wearing of face masks outdoors, closing of schools, restaurants and bars, gyms and pools and other businesses. While banning protests against Covid, he allowed and himself participated in a protest against changes to the abortion law.

He was "vaccinated" against Covid in 2020. He announced that the capital city of Warsaw will also encourage vaccination. "We're going to keep talking about the fact that these vaccines have been tested on such a large sample and there are so many authorities behind them that everything indicates that these vaccines are safe." In 2021 he was hospitalized due to a "coronavirus" infection. In July 2022, Trzaskowski said he has COVID-19 again, and that the virus seems to be "even more treacherous and contagious" than before and its symptoms are far from banal.

In July 2022, when asked if he supports the introduction of mandatory vaccinations, Trzaskowski said: "We can't afford another lockdown." "If the threat continues to grow, we may need to go a step further. There is no question of mandatory vaccinations, because it is difficult to force vaccinations, but about the introduction of certain types of easing for the vaccinated," he said.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Munich Security Conference/2022	18 February 2022	20 February 2022	Munich Bavaria Germany	Slightly less than 1/3 of the 664 of the participants have pages here

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