In the 1980s, Kopacz joined the
United People's Party. She entered active politics after her late husband, Marek Kopacz, a prosecutor, stood unsuccessfully for parliament. In the 1990s, Kopacz joined the Freedom Union and chaired the party's structures in the province of Radom. In the local elections in 1998, the regional council elected her as the councilor for the
Masovian Voivodship. In 2001, Kopacz left the Freedom Union to join the newly established
Civic Platform political party. She was then elected to the Parliament in 2005, where she became head of the Health Committee. She worked as the chairperson of the Civic Platform structures of Masovia.
Member of the Sejm Kopacz was first elected as a deputy to the Sejm in 2001.-->
Minister of Health In 2009 Kopacz gained some degree of international fame by requesting pharmaceutical companies to present the advantages of
swine flu vaccines, and demanding they take full responsibility for the side effects. She advised the Polish government to wait until proper testing had been done on the vaccine before investing in it, citing the fact that seasonal flu exceeds the current WHO criteria for pandemic every year but there has been no declaration of a pandemic of this much more dangerous seasonal flu. The Polish government refused to purchase the vaccine in question.
Prime Minister of Poland On 22 September 2014 Ewa Kopacz was sworn in as prime minister, after
Donald Tusk resigned to take office as
President of the European Council, and formed a cabinet. On 8 November 2014 she was sworn in as leader of the
Civic Platform. In her first major policy speech as prime minister, Kopacz promised more continuity in Poland's foreign policy. She said her government would not stand for a break-up of neighboring Ukraine and would push for a greater U.S. military presence in Poland as a deterrent to possible Russian aggression. For domestic political reasons she decided to replace Foreign Minister
Radosław Sikorski with her party rival
Grzegorz Schetyna. Instead, Sikorski was elected Marshal of the Sejm. At her first EU summit in October 2014, Kopacz managed to persuade the other Member States that Poland deserved lucrative concessions as part of a deal to cut European carbon emissions. After the
European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Poland for violating particle pollution levels and was investigating reports that it has also exceeded limits on nitrogen oxides, Kopacz's government declared 2015 to be the Year of Improving Air Quality and backed a proposal to empower regional authorities to clamp down on pollution from vehicles and from the burning of coal and wood in homes. Poland's
2014 local elections, a ballot expected to provide a solid show of support for Kopacz, saw her party instead attract fewer votes than the opposition for the first time in almost a decade. Instead, she appointed a group of relative political unknowns to her government in an effort to regain voters' trust and avoid defeat in the upcoming elections. The appointments included a former Olympic rower,
Adam Korol, who was named sports and tourism minister, and
Marian Zembala, a celebrated heart surgeon, who became the new minister for health. In the
national elections, Kopacz received 230 894 votes, which was the highest individual score in the country, and she received a mandate deputy of parliament VIII term. However, her party lost the elections. In accordance with the constitution, she resigned along with all other members of her cabinet at the first sitting of the newly elected Sejm. She remained in office until her successor
Beata Szydło was sworn in on 16 November 2015.
Member of the European Parliament Since becoming a
Member of the European Parliament following the
2019 European elections, Kopacz has been serving as one of its
Vice-Presidents; in this capacity, she has been part of the Parliament's leadership under Presidents
David Sassoli (2019–2022) and
Roberta Metsola (since 2022). Within the centre-right
European People's Party Group (EPP), she is part of the leadership team around chairman
Manfred Weber. She later also joined the Special Committee on Beating Cancer (2020) and the Special Committee on the
COVID-19 pandemic (2022). In addition to her committee assignments, Kopacz is a member of the
MEPs Against Cancer group. ==Personal life==