Włodzimierz Czarzasty
Włodzimierz Czarzasty is a Polish politician currently serving as the President of Democratic Left Alliance.
Born in Warsaw, Czarzasty graduated with degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Warsaw in the 1980s. Simultaneously, he was a member of Polish Students' Association, leader of association "Ordynacka", he was also a member of Polish United Workers' Party from 1983 to 1990.
Following the fall of Communism, Czarzasty became a member of SLD, the successor of PZPR. In the 1997 general election, he ran for the SLD but lost. In May 1999, he was appointed to the National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television by the President Aleksander Kwasniewski. He became a point of controversy during the Rywin affair, but he was not formally charged with any crime.
After a long extra-parliamentary career, Czarzasty ran as part of United Left party in the 2015 election. Since ZL didn't pass the 8% threshold required to hold seats in the Sejm, none of the candidates, including Czarzasty, won.
During the party leadership election in January 2016, Czarzasty defeated former MP Jerzy Wenderlich and was elected as the new president of Democratic Left Alliance, replacing the incumbent leader and former Prime Minister Leszek Miller. He was a candidate for the Masovian Regional Assembly during the local elections in 2018, but lost.
In the 2019 parliamentary election, Czarzasty co-led the Lewica coalition, together with Adrian Zandberg and Robert Biedroń, and was elected to the Sejm. He was a candidate from Sosnowiec constituency. On November 12, 2019, Czarzasty was elected Deputy Marshal of the Sejm in representation of Lewica.
