Barbara Nowacka

Barbara Anna Nowacka (born 10 May 1975) is a Polish politician. A left activist in Labour United, and later in Your Movement, in October 2015 she became leader of the United Left coalition for the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, bringing together Labour United, Your Movement, the Democratic Left Alliance, the Greens, and the Polish Socialist Party. Nowacka is the daughter of the late Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Policy Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka. Since 2016 she has been the leader of the Polish Initiative.

Barbara Nowacka
Member of the Sejm
Assumed office
12 November 2019
Constituency26 - Słupsk
Chairperson of Polish Initiative
Assumed office
June 2019
Preceded byoffice established
Leader of United Left
In office
21 July 2015 – 3 February 2016
Preceded byoffice established
Succeeded byoffice abolished
Leader of Your Movement
In office
20 June 2015 – 11 June 2017
Serving with Janusz Palikot
Personal details
Born (1975-05-10) 10 May 1975
Warsaw, Poland
NationalityPolish
Political partyPolish Initiative
Other political
affiliations		Civic Coalition (2019 to present)
Your Movement (2015-2017)
United Left (2015-2016)
Europa Plus (2013-2014)
Union of the Left (to 2006)
Labour Union (2001-2005)
ParentsJerzy Paweł Nowacki
Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka

Biography

Born in Warsaw, the daughter of Jerzy Nowacki, a rector at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, and Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, a former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Policy under Marek Belka's Cabinet. Her mother was listed on the flight manifest[1][2] of the Tupolev Tu-154 of the 36th Special Aviation Regiment carrying the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński which crashed near Smolensk-North airport near Pechersk near Smolensk, Russia, on 10 April 2010, killing all aboard.

Nowacka was educated at the University of Warsaw, where she was active as a feminist in the Federation for Women and Family Planning. From 1997 to 2006, she was a member of the youth wing of Labour United and then of the party itself. In 2014 she stood unsuccessfully in the European elections in Lublin for Europa Plus, supported by Aleksander Kwaśniewski. She went on from that defeat to join Janusz Palikot's Your Movement, becoming a joint leader, and helped to create the United Left, a broad coalition. On 4 October 2015 she was named as its candidate for prime minister if it won the election,[3] and on 17 October she presented the coalition's programme at a conference in Katowice.[4] However, in the elections on 25 October the United Left failed to reach the 8 per cent threshold for obtaining parliamentary representation under Poland's system of election, while Nowacka herself failed to be elected in the Warsaw I parliamentary constituency.

The Polish elections of 2015 were unusual in that most of the major parties contesting them were led by women. While Nowacka was the leader of the United Left, Ewa Kopacz of the governing Civic Platform party was the incumbent prime minister, and Beata Szydło of the opposition Law and Justice party was the main challenger. In the event, Szydło was elected with an overall majority.[5]

In 2016, Foreign Policy magazine included Nowacka, together with Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk of Razem, on its annual list of the 100 most influential global thinkers for their role in organizing protests against a total ban on abortion in Poland.[6]

In June 2019, Nowacka became leader of the political party Polish Initiative (iPL), which she originally founded as an association in 2016.[7] She is currently standing for election in Constituency № 26 (Słupsk) as a candidate for the Civic Coalition, of which iPL is a member party.

Notes
  1. Prezydenckim Tu-154 leciały najważniejsze osoby w państwie (Polish) Archived 2010-04-15 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Gay rights advocating former Polish Deputy PM among dead in plane crash
  3. Poland's United Left puts forward candidate for PM dated 04.10.2015 at the news.pl
  4. Adam Grabowski, United Left political party election convention in Katowice dated 17 October 2015 at demotic.com
  5. Monika Scislowska, Women dominate Polish election, with 3 vying to lead country, Associated Press, posted 23 October 2015
  6. "Foreign Policy's Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
  7. "Inicjatywa Polska partią polityczną!". ipl.org.pl. 12 June 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
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