Anna Fotyga

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Anna Fotyga bigraphy, stories - Ministers

Anna Fotyga : biography

12 January 1957 –

Anna Fotyga with U.S. Secretary of State [[Condoleezza Rice]] Anna Elżbieta Fotyga née Kawecka (born 12 January 1957 in Lębork) is a Polish economist, politician, former Member of the European Parliament and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, in the successive cabinets of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński. She is Poland’s first female to serve in the role

Fotyga is a graduate of the University of Gdańsk and the Danish School of Public Administration. She also served postgraduate internships at the Department of Labor of the United States, Cornell University in New York and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In 1981, and again after 1989, she acted as Head of the Foreign Office of the Solidarity headquarters in Gdańsk, and was a close associate of Lech Kaczyński. In 2000, Fotyga served as a foreign affairs adviser under then Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek. Subsequently, she was Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board of Social Security Administration (Zakład Ubezpieczen Spolecznych, ZUS) with special expertise in International Labour Organization (Międzynarodowa Organizacja Pracy) and the World Bank. From 2002 to 2004, she was Deputy Mayor of Gdańsk.

Fotyga garnered 25,994 votes (second highest in the region) in the 2004 European parliamentary elections as a candidate of the Law and Justice (PiS) party in the Pomeranian Voivodship.

On 9 May 2006 Anna Fotyga was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland by President Lech Kaczyński, replacing Stefan Meller. The left-wing opposition criticised her office for pursuing a policy of isolation in relation to Russia and Germany. On 7 September 2007 Fotyga was dismissed from her post but re-appointed again on the same day; in this way the Prime Minister and President avoided her being dismissed by a vote of censure prepared by the Civic Platform three months earlier.

Her position on foreign affairs is congruent with the policy stance of PiS, based on the concept of Poland as a strong, independent country, poised to confront Germany or Russia when necessary. She has also pursued a policy of close alignment with the U.S..

Following the fall of the Kaczynski administration in 2007, she was succeeded by Radosław Sikorski as foreign minister of Poland.

Until 20 August 2008 Fotyga was a Chief of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland.

She is married and has two children. She is fluent in English and Russian