Hanna Suchocka

Who is Hanna Suchocka?

Hanna Suchocka is a Polish political figure. She served as the prime minister of Poland between 11 July 1992 and 26 October 1993 under the presidency of Lech Wałęsa. She is the first woman to hold this post in Poland and 19th in the world.

Suchocka was born in Pleszew, Poland. She is a specialist in Constitutional Law. She was a member of the Sejm of People's Republic of Poland in the 1980s, and became Prime Minister in 1992. She served as an anomaly in the representation of women, however, as she obtained her position partly due to her leaning to both sides of the political spectrum.

After the downfall of the Jan Olszewski cabinet on June 1992, following the exposure of a list of secret communist collaborators of Służba Bezpieczeństwa by Minister of Internal Affairs Antoni Macierewicz, her cabinet was allegedly linked to illegal persecution and disintegration of Polish conservative and independent rightist parties.

Her left-wing leanings, accompanied by her strong anti-abortion position, made her the perfect candidate to satisfy the interests of a majority coalition in Parliament consisting of three parties including her own Democratic Union, the Christian National Union, and the Liberal Democratic Congress.