WARSAW – Andrzej Lepper, a former Polish deputy prime minister and leader of the small, populist Self-Defence Party, died yesterday, police said.
Local media said he could have taken his own life.
Mr Lepper (57) was known for his nationalist rhetoric and had been involved in a series of scandals. His party lost all its parliamentary seats in the 2007 national election and was not expected to win any in the next poll due in October.
“I can confirm that this death has occurred. Police procedures are now being carried out,” a police spokeswoman said. She gave no further details.
Poland’s public news broadcaster, quoting police sources, said Mr Lepper might have died by suicide.
His body was found at his party’s office in Warsaw.
Mr Lepper, a former farmer, had faced several criminal charges for acts of civil disobedience such as dumping grain on railway tracks, for slandering ministers and for sexual harassment.
Last year, a judge found him guilty of demanding sexual favours from woman members of his party and gave him a jail sentence against which he appealed.
Self-Defence was a junior coalition partner of Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s right-wing Law and Justice Party in the 2006 to 2007 government and Mr Lepper served in it as both deputy prime minister and as agriculture minister.
Mr Lepper’s party, known as Samoobrona in Polish, mainly enjoyed the support of poor rural Poles who felt excluded from Poland’s strong economic growth since it joined the EU in 2004. – (Reuters)