Paweł Zalewski

Zalewski grew up in Żoliborz,^[6] son of Jerzy Zalewski, an Operation Storm veteran.^[7] His grandfather fought as part of the Legions, his grandmother was involved in the Polish Socialist Party, and his paternal great-uncle was Major Antoni Jabłoński, commander of the 11th Legions Uhlan Regiment.^[6] His family is from the Świętokrzyskie Province near Bodzentyn.^[8]

During high school, he became a School Olympiad academic laureate in history and was admitted to University of Warsaw's School of History without taking entrance examinations.^[6][9] While at university, he joined the Forum of the Democratic Right, also known as the Democratic Union.^[6] Zalewski completed his Master's degree, also at the University of Warsaw, in 1990;^[10] his thesis was centered on Polish diplomats during the early days of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^[6]

In 1991, Zalewski was elected to the Sejm as a Democratic Union party member in the 26 Siedlce electorical district.^[3] He was elected again on 25 September 2005 as part of the Law and Justice platform with 14,068 votes in the 11 Sieradz district.^[11] During his term, he served as the deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.^[12][13] Despite being the party's vice president, he left Law and Justice in 2007 along with fellow member Kazimierz Ujazdowski after an argument with former Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński.^[14][15] He joined the Civic Platform (PO) in 2009^[16] and was a member of the European People's Party Group by 2012.^[2][17] He was reelected to the Sejm in 2019 as a member of the PO with 12248 from the 20 Warsaw electoral district.^[18]

Throughout his time as an MEP, he has served on a number of committees as well as on the European Parliament.^[9] In 2009, he was a delegate for the Parliamentary Cooperation Committee; from 2009—2014, he was a delegate for Iran–Poland relations and the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly; and from 2010—2014, he was a delegate for CARIFORUM.^[2] He served as a substitute delegate for Belarus–Poland relations^[2] and was a rapporteur of the DCFTA Agreement with Ukraine.^[19] He has also been the vice chairman of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade^[20] twice.^[2]

In 2020, he criticized Vladimir Putin for "destroying historical truth".^[21] In August 2021, he voted as an independent MEP against a proposal for increasing the president's salary.^[22] In September, still without a party, he voted in favor of aiding Afghan refugees.^[23]

Zalewski and his ex-wife have two daughters.^[6] In 2018, he married Kinga Sitarska^[32] and lost his mother.^[33] In December 2020, his father died of COVID-19, age 93.^[7]