Joanna Senyszyn

Joanna Senyszyn
Joanna Senyszyn in 2019
Member of the Sejm
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 November 2019
In office 19 October 2001 – 10 June 2009
Member of the European Parliament
In office 1 July 2009 – 1 July 2014
Constituency	Lesser Poland and Świętokrzyskie
Personal details
Born	Joanna Raulin (1949-02-01) 1 February 1949 Gdynia, Poland
Political party	Democratic Left Alliance (1998–present)
Other political affiliations	Polish United Workers' Party (1975–1990) Solidarity (1980–1995)
Alma mater	University of Gdańsk
Profession	Economist, lecturer

Joanna Senyszyn (Polish pronunciation: [jɔˈanna sɛˈnɨʂɨn]; born 1 February 1949) is a Polish politician and professor of Economics.

Senyszyn is member of the left-wing party Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which she was vice-president (2005–2008). From 2001 to 2009 she was member of the Sejm until she was elected as member of the European Parliament (2009–2014). Since 2019 she is again member of the Sejm. She is known as a critic of Catholicism.

Educational career

Joanna Senyszyn holds the academic rank of Professor ordinarius and holds the chair in market research at the University of Gdańsk, where she also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration before being elected to the Sejm.

Political career

From 1975 until it falls, Senyszyn was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), the governing party in the communist People's Republic of Poland. In 1980 she joined Solidarność, of which she continued to be a member until 1995.

Later, she joined SLD and was a successful candidate in the 2001 parliamentary election from the Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union (SLD-UP) list, becoming a member of the Sejm. She was also a candidate in the European Parliament election in 2004, but did not win a seat. In 2005, she secured herself another Sejm term in the election (getting 11925 votes in district 26 Gdynia) and became a vice-president of her party. From 2009 to 2014 she was a member of the European Parliament.

Media

Senyszyn's public appearances, both in the Sejm and on other occasions, are often marked by the use of provocative language and satire. She is credited with coining the term kaczyzm to describe her political opponents of the Law and Justice government.

She raised some controversy (and gained media attention) when she paraphrased the words of Pope John Paul II during the Parada Równości (Equality Parade), a demonstration promoting LGBT rights in Poland coupled with a gay pride parade.

Senyszyn frequently criticizes Roman Catholic Church in Poland, in her internet blog, she called it "impudent, spiritless, rich, unpunished and brazen". In return, bishop Tadeusz Pieronek said that she should be pasturing cattle instead.

Personal life

Senyszyn's husband, Bolesław Senyszyn, is a lawyer from Gdynia.

External links

• Official page
• Joanna Senyszyn at EP page