Jarosław Gowin

Jarosław Adam Gowin (born 4 December 1961) is a Polish conservative politician and editor. Gowin served as Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk between 2011 and 2013, and as Minister of Science and Higher Education in the cabinet of Mateusz Morawiecki between 2015 and 2020, Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Technology and Deputy Prime Minister from October 2020 until his dismissal in August 2021.

Background Gowin was born in Kraków to parents previously involved in the anti-communist Freedom and Independence movement, whose political discussions had an early effect on his upbringing. Later in life, Gowin was educated at Jagiellonian University and the University of Cambridge, where Gowin met and discussed Polish issues with the political scholar Zbigniew Pełczyński.

Gowin was elected to the Senate in the 2005 parliamentary election as a candidate for Civic Platform representing Kraków. In the wake of Jan Rokita's decision not to run for another term in the Sejm, Gowin was chosen as Civic Platform's lead candidate for Kraków in the 2007 parliamentary election, winning a seat.

Following his party's successful reelection to the government in the 2011 parliamentary election, Gowin was chosen by Prime Minister Donald Tusk to become the next Minister of Justice.

Minister of Justice: 2011–2013

Gowin was sworn in as a member of the cabinet on 18 November 2011. As minister, Gowin began a streamline program to remove bureaucratic hurdles from 49 professions in order to boost employment, including taxi drivers and tourist guides. Gowin's ministry also oversaw the criminal investigation on the collapse of investment firm Amber Gold (a company that turned out to be a financial pyramid) and its subsidiary airline OLT Express in 2012. However, Gowin was criticized over his ministry's belated discovery of the firm's financial wrongdoings, as well as a legal loophole that allowed the firm to operate without a banking license. In October 2012, as part of his ministry's plans to reform the nation's judicial system and against the wishes of the Polish People's Party, the government's junior coalition partner, Gowin issued the elimination of 79 district courts, combining their functions with other regional courts in order to better utilize staff judges.

In reaction to the opposition Democratic Left Alliance's (SLD) pledge in November 2012 to ban far-right groups such as the National Radical Camp and the All-Polish Youth, Gowin stated his opposition to any move in an interview with TOK FM. While deploring both groups' nationalist rhetoric as "repulsive," Gowin stressed that both organizations did not exceed legal limits to issue a ban, as well as citing the absence of legal tools to issue such a decree. During the case, Gowin stated that Russia still faced problems with the domestic rule of law in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse.

While in the government, Gowin quickly earned a reputation as a political maverick within Civic Platform and the cabinet, often voicing opinions contrary to both his party's and the government's agenda. As one of the most socially conservative members of the cabinet, Gowin became the center of several inter-party disputes that distanced himself from the cabinet. In October 2012, Gowin abstained from voting on the government's opposition to a stricter abortion control law submitted to the Sejm by the United Poland. Also in October, Gowin showed surprise and dismay over Prime Minister Tusk's decision to increase in vitro fertilisation funding to married and unmarried couples trying to have children for over a year without changing existing laws, deploring the premier's lack of consulting the Ministry of Justice over the matter and instead referring the matter to the Ministry of Health.

Prime Minister Tusk's decision to press forward in legalizing civil partnerships for heterosexual and homosexual couples in February 2013 additionally split Gowin from the prime minister and cabinet, with the justice minister leading 46 Civic Platform deputies to oppose the government's bill. Gowin's breaking ranks with the cabinet earned the justice minister scorn from many areas, with Tusk stating that "The government is a kind of civil partnership, in which loyalty is essential," while the opposition liberal Palikot's Movement (led by former PO Janusz Palikot) called for a vote of no confidence in the justice minister.

Controversy as Justice Minister Gowin's selection as Minister of Justice was controversial among left-leaning deputies within parliament. Openly gay Sejm deputy Robert Biedron from the Palikot's Movement, in an interview broadcast on Polskie Radio, controversially compared Gowin's conservative views in close alignment with the Islamist Taliban (a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement and military organization in Afghanistan currently waging war), mocking his department as the "ministry of the Catholic religion." Biedron's comments were in response to Gowin's vocal opposition to legislation sponsored by the Democratic Left Alliance to legally endorse civil unions, who labeled the legislation as "not really for the welfare of specific individuals, but for a social revolution, a departure from traditional morality." In April 2013, during an interview with TVN, when asked to clarify his opposition to greater in vitro fertilisation funding, Gowin stated that "German scientists are importing embryos from other countries—probably also from Poland—and are conducting experiments on them." The minister's comments sparked a minor diplomatic row with Germany, with the German embassy in Warsaw stressing there was no certifiable information of Polish embryos being used within German borders. Tusk named former Interior Minister Marek Biernacki as Gowin's replacement for the office of Justice Minister. According to Poland Together members, the decision was partly taken to strengthen Gowin's position within the United Right and to avoid confusion with the left-wing Razem party. Several days later, it was revealed that the ex-Civic Platform mayor of Kalisz, Grzegorz Sapiński, and the Christian Local Government Movement founded by former Łódź mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki would also join the new party. Ex-Polish People's Party senator Józef Zając joined Poland Together on 30 October in anticipation of the new party's official launch.

Election controversy

Initially, the Polish government chose to not delay the presidential election, a decision which caused controversy. In April 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Agreement's leadership strongly insisted on implementing an appropriate amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland so that Andrzej Duda's term would be prolonged by two years, with no chance for re-election in return. The Agreement's MPs issued appeals for all the parliamentary parties' approval, invoking the legal requirement of a 2/3 supermajority to enact their postulate. This proposal was supported by the Minister of Health, Łukasz Szumowski, however, this was rejected by the opposition.

Despite the Law and Justice's positive recognition, Jarosław Gowin announced his resignation from his ministerial functions as a result of no political support for the postponement from any of the opposite clubs, simultaneously asserting that the coalition be maintained. On the recommendation of his party, the office of Deputy Prime Minister devolved upon Jadwiga Emilewicz, one of the Vice Chairs of the Agreement. Within following days, Wojciech Murdzek assumed the temporarily vacant position of Minister of Science and Higher Education.

On 6 May, Gowin and Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Law and Justice struck an agreement to move the elections. The two parties had earlier been engaged in a political struggle over whether the elections should proceed in May. On 7 May, the Sejm approved legislation for the election to be held via postal ballot. That same day, PKW announced that "The current legal regulation deprived the National Electoral Commission of the instruments necessary to perform its duties. In connection with the above, the National Electoral Commission informs voters, election committees, candidates, election administration and local government units that voting on May 10, 2020 cannot take place."

The movement of the election day was met with support and opposition from both the "anti" and "pro" Law and Justice spheres of Polish politics. An opinion poll for Rzeczpospolita, gauged public support for the Gowin-Kaczyński agreement at 43.5%, with 36.3% being against, and the rest undecided.

Personal life Gowin resides in Kraków with his wife, Anna, and has three children.

Electoral history