Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 4, No. 2, Autumn 2019 | Page 22

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS • 4.2 • AUTUMN 2019
AIA INTERVIEW WITH RAFAŁ DUTKIEWICZ,
MAYOR OF WROCLAW (2002–2018)
Rafał Dutkiewicz is a politician, businessperson, academic lecturer, and activist.
From 2002 to 2018, Dutkiewicz was mayor of the city of Wroclaw.
During his presidency, Wroclaw has seen the highest number of public investments
in its post-war history and has won numerous awards and distinctions
in Polish, European and global rankings on a knowledge-based economy and
implementation of a “smart city” model. Wroclaw has also become an international
city with over 170,000 foreigners from 124 countries. Further, it
was the European Capital of Culture in 2016 and co-hosted the 2012 UEFA
Euro Football Championship. Prior to his presidency, Dutkiewicz gave lectures
on logics and introduction to mathematics at several universities for
more than 10 years. During the martial law period, he was an activist in the
underground movement “Solidarity” (Solidarność) in Wroclaw. In the years
1989–1990, he was co-leader and then leader of the Civic Committee in
Wroclaw, which, representing “Solidarity,” won the first partially free parliamentary
elections in 1989 and the first democratic local elections in 1990. He
holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics and a Ph.D. in formal logics.
Rafał Dutkiewiczs received numerous awards and distinctions, among others:
Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland, 2015),
Legion of Honor (France, 2013); Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of
Germany (Germany 2017), National Prize of Germany (2017), Honorary
Membership Academia Europaea (2011).
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doi: 10.18278/aia.4.2.4