Rafał Grupiński

Deputy Marshal of the Eleventh Term Senate, elected on 13 November 2023 at the first sitting of the Senate. Member of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Term Sejm. Born on 26 September 1952 in Wronki. In 1976 he graduated from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań with a degree in Polish Philology. He is a culture historian, literary critic, publicist and publisher. From 1977 to 1984, he worked as a teacher and librarian at schools in Poznań. From 1981 to 1999, he taught history, cultural theory and aesthetics at the Faculty of Artistic Education of the State Higher School of Fine Arts, later the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. During the communist period, he was associated with the democratic opposition and the underground publishing movement. From 1985 to 1999, he was editor-in-chief of the “Czas Kultury” literary monthly, published until 1989 in an independent circulation. From 1994 to 1995, he was editor-in-chief of the TV programme “Pegaz”, and in 1995–1996 – director of the TVP educational television channel. He sat on the board of the “Obserwator” publishing house (1990–1998), served as president of the board of the “Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne” publishing house (1999–2001) and as director and member of the board of the “Prószyński i S-ka” publishing house (2002–2005). From 2013 to 2018 he was a member of the Council of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Member of the “Czas Kultury” Association. In the 1990s, he joined the Liberal-Democratic Congress and then the Freedom Union. Between 2005 and 2023, he held a seat in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. In the Sixth Term Sejm, he was the Deputy Chairman of the Civic Platform Club, Chairman in the Seventh Term Sejm, and Deputy Chairman of the Civic Coalition Club in the Ninth Term Sejm. In the Eighth Term Sejm, he chaired the Education, Science and Youth Committee. In 2007–2009, he held the position of Secretary of State in the Chancellery of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. In 1990, he was awarded the Polcul Foundation prize for his journalism in the Paris-based “Kultura” magazine and the London-based “Puls” magazine. In 2003, he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit. Member of the Civic Platform.

Polish politician