Antoni Macierewicz

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Antoni Macierewicz (born 3 August 1948 in Warsaw) is a Polish right wing politician, former vice-minister of national defence in Jarosław Kaczyński government. Member of Sejm (lower house of Polish parliament), and chairman of the Catholic-National Movement party. In the years 1968-1989 he was a prominent member of the democratic opposition to communist rule, one of the founders of the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR).

He was Minister of Internal Affairs in Jan Olszewski Government (1991-1992). Olszewski cabinet fell after Macierewicz unveiled secret collaborators of communist Służba Bezpieczeństwa.

By decision of former prime-minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, since July 2006, he has been the lead liquidator of the Polish Military Information Services, while from October 2006 he has been the chief of the new restructured military counter-intelligence service. On 16 February 2007 the liquidation report was published, and was criticized by some circles in Poland and abroad.

At present, liquidation of the Polish Military Information Services is assessed in Poland as the big mistake of the right-wing political parties (PO and PiS).

In recent years, as a politician, he has presented a right-wing and anti-liberal attitude. He is not a supporter of Polish presence in the European Union^{[citation needed]} and was a publisher of the right-wing catholic weekly Głos (Voice)^[1]. He was elected to Sejm in October 2007.

[edit] Controversy

Antoni Macierewicz was accused by some of his political opponents for being irresponsible and making groundless claims^{[citation needed]}. In one case (Macierewicz versus Bartoszewski) Macierewicz expressed opinion that most of hitherto Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the III Republic of Poland were agents of the Soviet Special Services. This position was criticized, not only by the opposition, but also by his formal supervisor Radek Sikorski. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, who used to be Minister of Foreign Affairs, resigned from the position of the chairman of the Polish Foreign Affairs Institute. Nevertheless, Macierewicz was supported by Lech Kaczynski president of Poland.