Andrzej Lepper

Andrzej Lepper was one of the few high-profile politicians that consistently opposed Poland's involvement in American global military operations. He was involved in promoting close relations with the country's eastern neighbours – Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

Lepper was found dead in his Warsaw office on 5 August 2011. Police said that he likely committed suicide. The public prosecutor's office conducted a year-long investigation to determine possible motives for his suicide as well. Lepper hanged himself from a ceiling hook for a boxing punch bag. After his autopsy, foul play was ruled out. The investigation ended in late 2012. It was determined that Lepper suffered from a crushing depression due to his enormous debts on all fronts including at his farm, his spectacular political defeat and the sex scandals.

The party suffered a huge voter backlash, thereby failing to cross the 5% electoral threshold for elections to the Sejm. Consequently, it lost all its seats. He was a candidate in the 2010 Polish presidential election, but received just 1.28% of votes and so did not proceed into the second round.

As of 2007 Lepper faced criminal charges for slander and levelling corruption accusations against ministers and members of the parliament (Financial Times, 2002).

On 9 July 2007, Prime Minister Kaczyński dismissed Lepper from the government, which Kaczyński said was due to suspicions that Lepper was involved in corruption. On 10 July, Lepper said that Samoobrona would withdraw from the ruling coalition, but later on the same day said that the party would remain in the coalition conditionally. Lepper claimed to have been the victim of a politically motivated 'sting' operation, initiated by Prime Minister Kaczynski and PiS, and he demanded that a parliamentary inquiry be conducted to investigate the legality and motivation of the Central Anticorruption Bureau operation mounted against him. This was one of the conditions put to PiS in return for SO remaining within the coalition.

On 16 July 2007, Lepper, together with Roman Giertych, chairman of another junior coalition partner League of Polish Families, announced a merger of their two parties, to be called League and Self-Defense (LiS). On August 5, the party quit the ruling coalition, leaving it without a majority.

Early parliamentary elections for both houses of parliament (Sejm and Senat) were held on 21 October 2007, after the Sejm voted for its own dissolution on 7 September.

He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development between 5 May 2006 and 22 September 2006, and again from 16 October 2006 to 9 July 2007, in the cabinet of Jarosław Kaczyński. Prior to entering politics he was a professional farmer in the village of Zielnowo, Pomerania. He was a candidate in the Polish presidential election in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010.

Lepper led the SO party to form a majority coalition with the PiS party in May 2006, assuming the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture. This tenure was abruptly terminated in September 2006, and Lepper was invited to re-join the Jarosław Kaczyński Cabinet on the 16 October 2006.

Andrzej Lepper was charged with criminal offenses, including assault, blocking roads and dumping grain on railroad tracks in the course of anti-government demonstrations (The New York Times, 2006).

In December 2006 a female party member claimed that Lepper and party deputy Stanisław Łyżwiński had demanded sexual favours in exchange for a job in a regional SO party office. After the publication of these claims in the Gazeta Wyborcza, several other women came forward with similar accusations. Poland's chief prosecutor Janusz Kaczmarek later launched an investigation into the abuse allegations against both men. In February 2010 Andrzej Lepper was sentenced to two years and three months in jail after being found guilty of demanding and accepting sexual favours from female members of his SO party. The district court in central Poland also sentenced former SO party deputy Stanislaw Lyzwinski to five years for rape and taking sexual advantage of female members of his party. Lepper said that the entire case against him was "imagined", and that he would appeal the decision.

Lepper's party received 11.4% of the vote and 56 seats in the September 2005 parliamentary election, making it the 3rd biggest party in the Sejm. Andrzej Lepper stood in the October 2005 presidential election as the party's candidate and received 15% of the vote, the third highest result.

Some of his many famous quotes are that "It is impossible to rape a prostitute", or "I see myself as a positive dictator". Lepper himself appeared to be a restless man, not easily placated and not inclined to settle down as an office holder, as his participation in Kaczyński's government showed. With the votes of the left-wing majority in the Sejm, in 2001 he was elected as Vice-Speaker of Sejm (Wicemarszałek Sejmu), but after violating time constraints in debates he was dismissed. Among Lepper and SO's undertakings in parliament were such incidents as the use of their own loudspeakers in the Sejm and claims that Robert Smoktunowicz of the liberal Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) engaged in the precious-stone trade doing business with the Afghan Taliban.

In May 2001 Lepper was sentenced to sixteen months in prison. In May 2006 Polish students protested against the coalition government and also mocked Lepper's recent criminal conviction for slander, chanting "Lepper to prison".

As a party leader, he challenged Aleksander Kwaśniewski in the 1995 presidential election (1.3% votes). In the 2000, SO organised campaigns of blocking major roads to bring the public opinion and mass media attention to the growing impoverishment of the Polish agriculture. Lepper won 3.05% votes in the 2000 presidential election. In the 2001 parliamentary election, Lepper's party enter the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament (Sejm). Lepper was elected from Koszalin constituency.

Samoobrona ("SO") and Lepper successfully tapped into the disillusion felt by millions of poor citizens who have not benefited from Poland's entry into the European Union. Many SO voters live in small towns and villages with high unemployment rates, and therefore believe that they have lost out in the transition to the free market economy after 1989. However, Lepper was often criticized for not acknowledging the economic growth Poland has experienced since then.

For 2 years (1978-80) he was a member of PZPR Polish United Workers' Party, Poland's equivalent of a formal communist party during the PRL (Polish Ppl Republic 1947/48-1989). In 1992 Lepper formed his own political party, an organisation of economically struggling farmers like himself, naming it "Samoobrona" (Self defence) (SO). Lepper organised anti-government demonstrations and other actions, most significantly against the politics of Suchocka and Buzek governments, both characterised by growing social and socio-economic injustice, especially experienced by the Polish countryside.

Andrzej Zbigniew Lepper (Polish pronunciation: [ˈandʐɛj ˈzbiɡɲɛf ˈlɛppɛr] ( listen ) ; 13 June 1954 – 5 August 2011) was a Polish politician, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, and the leader of Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland political party.