On the 5th of August, at about 5 PM police discovered the body of Andrzej Lepper, founder of the Samooborona[1] RP party, at its head-quarters. All the circumstances pointed towards the suicide. That was the tragic end of the brightest political career of the post-war Poland — from an ordinary employee at the Plant Protection Stations in an outback Gorzeń to the post of Polish Deputy Prime Minister. Samooborona RP Party he created was the third largest political power in the country. At the presidential elections 2005 Andrzej Lepper gained 2 million votes.
Andrzej Lepper never fit Polish establishment. Every single feature of his contradicted the Polish political culture, which was formed in the post-socialist era. He never studied in prestige universities (having graduated from State Agricultural Technical School), knew no foreign languages and spoke a plain common Polish, which was easy to understand for his electorate — Polish peasantry. Since 1977 to 1980 Andrzej Lepper was a member of PZPR (Polish United Workers’ Party). When the “shock therapy” started in Poland, Lepper created the Agricultural Laborers’ Union Samooborona, which was transformed into a party of the same name a year after. Then he got famous for the organization of the highway blockades, pouring grain at the railways and calls not to pay off the loans, which rates suddenly increased tenfold and more because of the economic reforms. In 2001 Lepper became a Deputy Marshal of the West Pomeranian Sejm. The same year Samooborona placed 3rd at the parliament elections with a result of 10.2%, while its chair was elected the Vice-Chair of the Sejm. He hasn’t stay at this post for long: after accusing many famous politicians of bribery from the Sejm tribune that November, he was withdrawn from this high seat and lost all the trials on the slander charges. In 2005 Lepper took part in the presidential elections for the third time in his career and placed third with a result of 15.11%. Lech Kaczyński was elected President then. Lepper’s support during the second round of elections contributed to his victory. Coalition union with the party of Kaczyński brothers brought Lepper to the seat of Prime Minister Deputy and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, although he failed to stay at the top of his career. As soon as on the 9th of July, 2007 Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński fired him on the charges of corruption. This was an age of “showy” trials over corrupted officials, which Jarosław used to return the electorate popularity. Although the grounds for holding Andrzej Lepper responsible have never been found, this incident had a disastrous impact on the results of the next pre-term elections in 2007. Samooborona only got 1.53% of the votes and, having failed to overcome the election threshold, fetched itself outside the Sejm. This started the marginalization of the party and its leader.
Having lost the budget earmarks, Lepper and his party faced serious financial troubles. They even haven’t got the money pay the rent for the party head-quarters in the centre of Warsaw. He even passed away “with the open doors” — electric locks at the doors weren’t functioning, when the electricity was cut off for nonpayment. A pile of the unpaid bills lay on his table. Lately the cash was the only subject of all his business meetings. He was feverishly looking for a way out of the financial dead-end and failed at that…
Lepper burst into the Polish politics unexpectedly and bravely. He championed common peasants like himself. His motto — “Man, Family, Job, Decent Life” — found response in the heart of every Polish “chłop[2]”. He managed to attract a substantial part of PSL electorate — the oldest peasants’ party, which turned into a party of agricultural lords. He was stranger to political engineering, plain in common life and purposeful in politics. Of course, there was a certain share of peasant’s cunning in his behaviour, but no one would have the heart to call him insincere. He was different from the Polish political elite literally in everything. Even the painful subject of relations with Russia wasn’t forbidden to him. Leppers brought flowers to the Russian Embassy and begged pardon for the action of hooligans, who burnt a Russian flag beside the Russian consulate in Poznan; he paid visits to Moscow and Minsk, when that was especially unfashionable among Polish politicians.
That was Sandra Lewandowska, Samooborona RP party member, and the former Sejm member, told us about Andrzej Lepper:
Andrzej Lepper and Sandra Lewandowska
“It was late Jerzy Szmajdziński[3], who made me interested with politics, but then I was convinced that Lepper was much more decisive in the fight for his platform ideas, so I entered Samooborona and became an MP. Many politicians didn’t understand pan Andrzej, tried to discredit him and decoy him into various affairs. He was better appraised in Brussels than at home. Lepper stood for cooperation with Russia and tried to establish an economic partnership. He negatively treated the attempts to foment anti-Russian sentiments in Poland. Andrzej Lepper was persecuted at home. When he left for Moscow as a member of Council of Europe, Prime Minister Kaczyński decreed his vacation in order to deprive him of his vote in the Council. Relations between them have always been tense — on the second day after Lepper’s appointment, Jarosław Kaczyński ordered the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau to watch after him. Lepper dedicated a large share of his time to the economic cooperation with the Republic of Belarus.”
Sandra Lewandowska is going to continue his work. At the next parliament elections this October she’s going to run for the MP seat on behalf of Samooborona. Party is to go through some hard times without its leader, but she believes that they’ll succeed. That’s how the party bade farewell to its founder and leader:
“Great tribune and leader of every poor and oppressed man, whom the fate sent disparagements and grieves aplenty, left us. You will always rest in our memory as a great warrior for the reputation and dignity of a common man, for a decent life for him, for social justice and truth. I believe that our Good Lord will reveal the truth about his death…”
Andrzej Lepper was, perhaps the last Robin Hood of the Polish politics. Let him rest in peace.
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