Włodzimierz Czarzasty (born 3 May 1960) is a Polish politician who serves as the chairperson of the New Left party (Nowa Lewica). He has served as the marshal of the Sejm (Speaker) since 18 November 2025. He also served as a deputy marshal of the Sejm from 2019 to 2025.
Contents
Biography
Born in Warsaw, Poland. Czarzasty graduated with degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Warsaw in the 1980s. Simultaneously, he was a member of Polish Students' Association (ZSP), leader of association Ordynacka, and a member of the communist Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) from 1983 to 1990.
Following the fall of Communism, Czarzasty became a member of SLD, the successor of PZPR. In the 1997 general election, he ran for the SLD but lost. In May 1999, he was appointed to the National Broadcasting Council by the President Aleksander Kwasniewski. He became a point of controversy during the Rywin corruption scandal, but he was not formally charged with any crime.
After a long extra-parliamentary career, Czarzasty ran as part of United Left (ZL) party in the 2015 election. Since ZL did not pass the 8% threshold required to hold seats in the Sejm, none of the candidates, including Czarzasty, won.
During the party leadership election in January 2016, Czarzasty defeated former MP Jerzy Wenderlich and was elected as the new president of Democratic Left Alliance, replacing the incumbent leader and former Prime Minister Leszek Miller. He was a candidate for the Masovian Regional Assembly during the local elections in 2018, but lost.