Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz
Jolanta Dorota Szymanek-Deresz (12 July 1954 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish lawyer and politician. She was born in Przedbórz, Poland.
She studied in Łódź and Warsaw, finishing her law degree at the University of Warsaw in 1977. After a judicial apprenticeship, she worked at the District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw and later joined a law firm after passing the bar in 1987. From 1996 she was involved with an international organization specializing in competition law.
From 1979 to 1990 she was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). On January 3, 2000 she became Undersecretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of Poland, and on June 13, 2000 she served as Head of the Chancellery. She held this position into the second term of President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, until 18 October 2005. In 2002 she received the Estonian Order of the White Star, 1st Class.
In the 2005 parliamentary elections she was elected to the Sejm from the Płock constituency on the SLD list. In 2007 she was re-elected on the Left and Democrats list, with 20,536 votes. She joined the Left parliamentary club on 22 April 2008 and became Deputy Chairperson of the SLD on 1 June 2008. In 2009 she ran for the European Parliament but was not elected.
She died in the Smolensk air disaster on 10 April 2010 while traveling to the Katyn massacre anniversary. She was buried on 19 April 2010 at Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw. She was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland on 16 April 2010. In September 2010 the City Council of Płock named her an Honorary Citizen. In November 2010 commemorative plaques were placed in Płock and Żuromin, and in April 2012 a plaque honoring her and other Smolensk disaster victims was unveiled at the Supreme Bar Council building in Warsaw.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:18 (CET).