Bogdan Zdrojewski
Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski (born 18 May 1957) is a Polish politician, mayor of Wrocław from 1990 to 2001, and Minister of Culture and National Heritage from 2007 till 2014. He has also been member of the Polish and of the European Parliament. Biography. From 1976 to 1977, Zdrojewski worked as a junior machinist of electric traction at the Polish National Railways, and then until 1979 as a specialist in the National Grain and Milling Factory in Wrocław. Zdrojewski enrolled at the University of Wrocław's Department of Philosophy and History in 1980; there he founded and chaired the  History of Philosophy Scientific Circle. The same year he joined the Independent Students' Union (ISU), becoming head of its department branch. From 1982 till 1984, during the martial law in Poland, Zdrojewski led ISU at the University of Wrocław. He graduated in philosophy in 1983, and in cultural studies in 1985. In 1984, Zdrojewski became a faculty member at the Wrocław University of Economics, and a member of the founding committee of NSZZ Solidarność. From 1989 to 1990, he worked for the Institute of Sociology at the University of Wrocław. At the same time, he was a secretary of the  Wrocław Solidarity Citizens' Committee as well as a founder and director of the Centre for Social Research of the regional executive committee of NSZZ Solidarność in Lower Silesia. Zdrojewski served three terms as a city councillor of Wrocław (1990–1994, 1994–1998, and 1998–2001). He was the first freely-elected mayor of the City of Wrocław, and Poland's youngest mayor (33 when he took office). He served as mayor for 11 years (from 4 June 1990 to 1 September 2001). During the 1997 flood in Lower Silesia, Zdrojewski, coordinated the city's response to the threat, including by leading efforts to  deliver assistance to residents in need. At the 1997 elections Zdrojewski was elected to the Senate of Poland, receiving 241,179 votes as an independent candidate. He resigned on 11 January 2000, after the Constitutional Court's decision that a mayor's position cannot be combined with a senator's mandate. He resigned from the mayor's position in May 2001, as he decided to stand as a candidate in the 2001 parliamentary elections. He was elected for the 4th parliamentary term of Sejm from Platforma Obywatelska (47,297 votes). In 2005, Zdrojewski was reelected to Sejm of the 5th legislature  from Platforma Obywatelska list in Wrocław (73,959 votes). The following year, he took the position of Minister of Defence in Donald Tusk's shadow cabinet. On 5 December 2006, he became head of the parliamentary group of Platforma Obywatelska. Standing in Wrocław at the 2007 elections, he received the third-highest result in Poland, which amounted to 213,883 votes. On 16 November 2007, Zdrojewski was appointed Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Donald Tusk's first government. At the 2011 elections, he was re-elected to the Sejm gaining the support of 149,962 voters, and confirmed by Prime Minister  Tusk in the same ministerial position. At the 2014 European elections, Zdrojewski received a mandate of a Member of the European Parliament of the 8th legislature. He took over the mandate on 1 July 2014. He did not contested the 2019 European elections. Married to Barbara (also a senator), they have a son and a daughter.