1. Maciej Marian Giertych is a Polish dendrologist and social conservative politician of the League of Polish Families.
24 Facts About Maciej Giertych
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Maciej Giertych was a member of the Sejm and a Polish member of the European Parliament.
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Maciej Giertych was a candidate in the 2005 Polish presidential elections, but withdrew from the race because of low vote results.
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Maciej Giertych is a notable creationist and has stated that he opposes the theory of evolution as a scientist, a geneticist, and not on religious grounds.
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Maciej Giertych was born on 24 March 1936 in Warsaw, the son of notable writer politician of the nationalist National Democracy movement Jedrzej Giertych and his wife Maria.
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In 1954 Maciej Giertych passed his final school exams and entered Oxford University, where he founded the Polish Students Club during his studies.
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In 1962, Maciej Giertych returned to Poland, where he completed his qualifications for an assistant professorship at the Institute of Dendrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kornik near Poznan.
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Maciej Giertych has published more than 200 works and studies, mostly on forest-related topics.
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In 1986, Maciej Giertych joined the advisory council, made up of opposition members and party officials set up by the leader of the communist authorities, Wojciech Jaruzelski.
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Maciej Giertych continuously showed his support for General Jaruzelski, and supported the alliance between Poland and the Soviet Union.
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Maciej Giertych served as the Polish representative to the International Union of Forest Research Organisations from 1986 to 1995.
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On 23 September 2001 Maciej Giertych was elected to the Polish Parliament from a Poznan constituency.
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Maciej Giertych opposed lifting the ban on purchase of land in Poland by foreigners, homosexuality and moral relativism.
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Maciej Giertych criticized and opposed Poland's entry into the European Union.
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Maciej Giertych has supported closer ties with Eastern European countries, as well as defending Polish industry against what he regards as the unfair practices of western companies.
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In general, the views of Maciej Giertych are in line with the ideology of Radio Maryja, a media group and political-religious channel of religiously conservative parties in Poland.
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Maciej Giertych praised Francisco Franco, Antonio Salazar and Eamon de Valera, as guardsmen of traditional European values, in the same address to the European Parliament.
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In February 2007, Maciej Giertych sparked outrage among European Union officials and Jewish organizations by publishing a brochure called "Civilisations at war in Europe" that claimed Jews create their own "ghettos" because they supposedly prefer to separate themselves from others.
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Maciej Giertych said that the publication was "a serious breach of fundamental rights and, in particular, the dignity of human beings to which our institution so strongly adheres".
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Maciej Giertych is an honorary member of the Daylight Origins Society, a creationist organisation based in the United Kingdom.
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In 2006, Maciej Giertych rebutted the accusation that he advocated teaching creationism in schools.
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On 11 October 2006 Maciej Giertych introduced and moderated a pro-creationist seminar held in Brussels for members of the European Parliament; The title of the presentation was Teaching evolutionary theory in Europe.
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In 2008, Maciej Giertych appeared in Ben Stein's movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
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The documentary features Maciej Giertych talking about his views on the theory of evolution.