Janusz Korwin-Mikke


Janusz Korwin-Mikke is a far-right Polish politician and publicist. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 until 2018. He was the leader of the Congress of the New Right, which was formed in 2011 from Liberty and Lawfulness, which he led from its formation in 2009, and the Real Politics Union, which he led from 1990 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2003. Currently, he is the chairman of the party Liberty, which changed its name from KORWiN, and since 2019 he is a member of the Sejm, elected from the electoral list of Confederation Liberty and Independence.

Biography

From 1962 to 1982 he was a member of the Democratic Party. In 1987 he founded a fringe national conservative, economically liberal political party called Ruch Polityki Realnej, later renamed - Unia Polityki Realnej.
In 1990 he established a weekly paper Najwyższy Czas!.
Korwin-Mikke was a member of Parliament during the first term of the Sejm of the Third Republic of Poland. He was the originator of the vetting resolution on 28 May 1992, which obliged the Minister of Internal Affairs to disclose the names of all politicians who according to communist files were cooperating with communists. He was his party's candidate in Polish presidential elections, obtaining 2.4% votes in 1995, 1.43% in 2000, 1,4% in 2005, 3.3% in 2015. In 2018 he co-founded a eurosceptic political party Konfederacja. In 2019 he was elected for deputy in the lower chamber of Polish Parliament. He is a self-declared monarchist who claims that democracy is "the most stupid form of government ever conceived". He co-authored a book on bridge.

Controversies

Mikke gained fleeting notoriety in Polish mass media due to his shocking claims, often considered offensive or discriminatory.
At the plenary session of the European Parliament held after the assault at Charlie Hebdo, Korwin-Mikke expressed his dissatisfaction with the public reaction to those events by typing at his laptop 'I am not Charlie. I am for death penalty' and presenting it to the public instead of a sign 'Je suis Charlie' held by the other MEPs.
, 2015

Sexism

He believes that women are, on average, less intelligent than men, citing chess results to back up his claims. Also, he cites Margaret Thatcher as his political model. He also stated that the difference between rape and consensual sex is very subtle, even going as far as saying that "Were you to understand woman's nature, sir, you would know that there is an element of rape in every sexual intercourse". He further claimed that: "there is a hypothesis that the attitudes of men are passed to women they sleep with".
On 1 March 2017, Korwin-Mikke sparked controversy by stating that women were paid less than their male counterparts on average due to them being "smaller, weaker and less intelligent", during a debate in the EP regarding the gender pay gap. Two days later, Korwin-Mikke would make further comments stating that there was a stereotype that "women have the same intellectual potential as men” and it “must be destroyed because it is not true.” Later he was suspended for 10 days from the plenary sessions of the EP.

Racism

In 2014, Korwin-Mikke was fined by President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz for 'expressing himself in a racist manner'. The decision was taken after Korwin-Mikke's speech about EU employment policy on the plenary session on 16 July, during which he said: 'we have 20 million Europeans who are now negroes of Europe'. According to him the word 'negroes' was not meant as an offence, but rather referred to the song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono 'Woman is the Nigger of the world'.

Ableism

During the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Korwin-Mikke wrote that the general public should "not see the disabled on television". On the other hand, in 2007 he set up the "Individual Development Foundation" which helps disabled people develop their skills in chess.

Anti-semitism

Korwin-Mikke has a history of anti-semitic stunts and statements. He promoted a conspiracy theory on Jews in conjunction with reporting on the residents of Pruchnik beating up the effigy of an Orthodox Jew. In 2020 he stated that anti-Jewish pogroms made Jews powerful via natural selection and that rabbis may have engineered this. Korwin-Mikke denies being an anti-Semite.

Other conspiracy theories

Other provocative statements include his claim that there is no written proof that Adolf Hitler was aware of the Holocaust. On 15 April 2015 the Polish news outlet Wiadomości quoted Korwin-Mikke that the snipers that shot civilians and police officers during the Maidan protests were trained in Poland and that they acted on behalf of the CIA to provoke riots.

Criticism of the EU

He proposed that the European Commission's Berlaymont building would be better used as a brothel. In July 2015, Korwin-Mikke was suspended from the EP after giving a Nazi salute and saying "ein Reich, ein Volk, ein ticket" during a speech to protest against a uniform EU transport ticket.

Criticism of social welfare

In regard to welfare, he claimed that "if someone gives money to an unemployed person, he should have his hand cut off because he is destroying the morale of the people".
On 8 September 2015, Korwin-Mikke was giving a speech in EP about the European migrant crisis, during which he described immigrants unwilling to work and only interested in welfare as "human garbage". His opinion met with critical reaction of other MEPs. As a result of this, Korwin-Mikke was once more suspended from the EP for 10 days and fined €3062.

Publications

Selected works by JKM: