Wroclaw's mayor to join Civic Platform
Wroclaw's mayor, Bogdan Zdrojewski, has announced he will step down as city head next month to launch his election bid on the Civic Platform (PO) party ticket in the run-up to the autumn parliamentary ballot.
Zdrojewski is the longest standing mayor of a major Polish city, placing Wroclaw in the national spotlight several times during his 11 years in office.
Most notably, Wroclaw's determination not to pay VAT sparked a national debate on whether cities should be taxed for economic activities. A four-year court battle ended in 1999 when the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) ruled that the city was liable for zl. 22 million ($5.5 million) in VAT and interest for 1996 alone. Last year, Wroclaw negotiated a settlement of almost zl. 100 million ($25 million).
The politician became the focus of controversy after he was forced to give up his seat in the Senate following a ruling that he could not hold his mayoral and national post simultaneously. Following the last local elections in 1998, Zdrojewski tested the limits of the law one more time when he was appointed for a third term as Wroclaw's mayor, an unprecedented move permitted only by a legal loophole.
But Zdrojewski's strolls along a thin legal line were permitted in part due to his popularity among Wroclaw voters and in the business community. In choosing Wroclaw as its European center for bus production in 1998, Volvo praised Zdrojewski and other local officials for creating a positive investment atmosphere in the city.
"In the past 10 years, Wroclaw changed beyond recognition from a grey provincial town to a regional European metropolis," said Jacek Protasiewicz, spokesman for Wroclaw's city board.
Zdrojewski has also moved to place Wroclaw in the international spotlight by pushing for the city's candidacy to host the World Expo in 2010. To promote the city's candidacy, Wroclaw forked out $155,000 to fund a four-page advertisement in the European edition of Time magazine.
"For sure this is a person with imagination who tried to promote Wroclaw effectively," said Andrzej Porawski, director of the Union of Polish Cities.
While Zdrojewski continues to enjoy significant popularity in Wroclaw, there are some indications that his support is waning. How successful he is in his bid for a Sejm seat will also depend on how successful he is at distancing himself from past travails.
