Janusz Adam Onyszkiewicz (, born 18 December 1937) is a Polish mathematician, alpinist and politician, who served as Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets of Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993) and Jerzy Buzek (1997–2000).
Later in his career, Onyszkiewicz was a Member of the European Parliament.
Early life and education
Onyszkiewicz was born in Lwów (then Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine). He graduated in mathematics from Warsaw University. He became a mathematician, and was also known as an alpinist in the 1970s along with his wife Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz. After Alison's death on Annapurna in 1978, Onyszkiewicz gave up altitude climbing and turned to politics.
Political career
In the 1980s, Onyszkiewicz became the spokesman for the anti-communist Solidarity movement. In 1986, he was again detained by the police, preventing him from holding a news conference on behalf of political prisoners that was scheduled to coincide with the start of a conference of intellectuals.
Member of the Polish Parliament
After the fall of communism in 1989, Onyszkiewicz became a member of the Polish Sejm. He served all subsequent terms from May 1989 until 2001. In the spring of 1990, Onyszkiewicz and Bronisław Komorowski became the first civilian vice-ministers of defence in the communist-dominated Ministry of Defence.
References
- Onuszkiewicz's page for elections to the European Parliament [https://web.archive.org/web/20100425055238/http://www.januszonyszkiewicz.pl/]
See also
- 2004 European Parliament election in Poland