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.
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Biography
Born in Warsaw, Poland, as the son of Wincenty and Irena, 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.
Sejm
In the 2019 parliamentary election, Czarzasty co-led the Lewica coalition, together with Adrian Zandberg and Robert Biedroń, and was elected to the Sejm. He was a candidate from Sosnowiec constituency. On 12 November 2019, Czarzasty was elected Deputy Marshal of the Sejm in representation of Lewica.
In July 2021, Czarzasty suspended the party member rights of Karolina Pawliczak and five other New Left MPs after they disagreed with him and made their disagreement public. The suspended politicians sent a letter to Czarzasty in which they questioned the fact that certain political commitments were made on behalf of the party, and allowed their letter to be public. Czarzasty accused them of an action grossly violating the obligation to care for the good name of the party. Pawliczak said: "Democracy, not bullying; talking, not suspending and expelling from the party ... I want to continue building such a democratic party with my friends."
In the 2023 elections, he successfully ran for parliamentary re-election, winning 22,332 votes. On 13 November of that year, he was elected Deputy Marshal of the Sejm under Szymon Hołownia.
On 5 February 2026, US ambassador to Poland Tom Rose announced that the United States would have “no further dealings, contacts, or communications” with Czarzasty in response to what Rose said were “outrageous and unprovoked insults directed against President Trump.
Personal life
Czarzasty is married to Małgorzata, a business executive and academic with a PhD from the University of Warsaw. She is the vice-president of a management board of Muza SA and is also involved in the publishing industry. The couple have one daughter, Iga. Czarzasty became a grandfather in 2019 with the birth of his granddaughter Zoja.