Szymon Franciszek Hołownia (Polish: [ˈʂɨmɔn xɔˈwɔvɲa]; born 3 September 1976) is a Polish politician and television personality currently serving as Speaker of the Sejm since 13 November 2023. From 2008 to 2019 he co-hosted Mam talent!, the Polish version of Got Talent, together with Marcin Prokop. He was an independent presidential candidate in the 2020 elections, coming in third place in the first round of the elections. He is the leader of the Poland 2050 political party.
From 1997 to 2000, he worked as an editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, and from 2001 to 2004 as a columnist and editor of Newsweek Polska. From April[1] to July 2005[2] he was the deputy editor-in-chief of Ozon magazine. From September 2005 to 2006, he worked for Rzeczpospolita daily as an editor of the Plus Minus appendix.[3] He published – among others – in Kultura Popularna, Machina, Przewodnik Katolicki, Tygodnik Powszechny and Więź.[1] In the years 2006–2012 he was again a columnist for Newsweek Polska. From September 2012 to April 2013 he was a columnist for the Wprost weekly. From 2015 he is a regular columnist for Tygodnik Powszechny.[4]
He hosted programs in Radio Białystok, Radio Vox FM, cooperated with Radio PiN.[5][1]
He has authored twenty books on social issues and religion.[6]
Television
Szymon Hołownia in 2017
Together with Marcin Prokop he co-hosted the Polish edition of Got Talent on TVN (2008–2019).[7] In 2006, he was the host of the program "Po prostu pytam" (pl. "I just ask") on TVP1.[6] In the years 2007–2012 he was the program director of Religia.tv.[6] In this station he hosted an ethical talk show "Między sklepami" (pl. "Between Stores") broadcast from the Złote Tarasy shopping mall in Warsaw,[8] the program "Bóg w wielkim mieście" (pl. "God in the Big City")[9] and numerous other programmes.
He founded the Białystok branch of the "Pomoc Maltańska" foundation.[11] In April 2013, he founded the "Kasisi" foundation, and in the following year he established the "Dobra Fabryka" foundation.[12]
As part of the "Dobra Fabryka", aid organized by Hołownia reached, among others, residents of Bangladesh, Mauritania, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Senegal. In total, the foundation helps around 40,000 people on a yearly basis.[13] The "Kasisi" foundation focuses on running the largest orphanage in Zambia, where more than two hundred children live permanently.[14]
Hołownia is a children's rights advocate.[15] In 2019, he organized a Facebook fundraiser which raised PLN 2 million (including over PLN 1.5 million paid by Kulczyk Foundation) for the 24-hour telephone helpline for children and youth run by the "Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę" foundation. The support let the line to operate for another year, though it was rejected by the Ministry of National Education.[16] He is a co-initiator of the Pomocni.info website, addressed to people in a difficult life situation.[17][18][19][20]
Hołownia has proposed a referendum on increasing the health premium in order to repair health care in Poland. According to Hołownia, Poland should allocate 7% of GDP for this purpose. He points out the need to make the doctors' work lighter and to expand telemedicine services. He has suggested handing over hospitals with their revenues to the Voivodeship governments in order to improve the quality and availability of services, as elected councillors would be responsible for them.[40] He supports the creation of a National Climate Council to develop a plan for Poland to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 under the European Green Deal, including a move away from coal energy.[41] He considers the water crisis as one of the main ecological problems of Poland. He is a supporter of renewable energy.[42]
Hołownia is opposed to gay marriage, preferring the legalization of same-sex civil unions. He has stated that Third Way would follow "a rule of voting according to one's conscience" if such question was brought up. [43]
Private life
Hołownia is married to Urszula Brzezińska-Hołownia, a Mikoyan MiG-29 jet fighter pilot and a first lieutenant in the Polish Air Force.[44] They have two daughters (as of 2022).[45] He graduated from the Social High School in Bialystok. He studied psychology at the Warsaw School of Social Psychology but did not complete his degree.[46]
He is a Roman Catholic. Before getting married, Hołownia had been in the Dominican Order twice and was about to take the monastic ordination.[47] In January 2020 he was denied communion by a priest of the Carmelite Church of Warsaw due to his political views; Hołownia denounced the event on Facebook, leading the Archdiocese of Warsaw to issue an official apology, stating that the priest had broken Church regulations.[48]
Hołownia has won the Grand Press award twice: 2006 in the Interview category for his conversation with the theologian, Rev. Jerzy Szymik, titled "Heaven for pigeons"[50] and in 2007 in the Specialist Journalism category for an interview with the ethicist and philosopher Dr. Kazimierz Szałata.[51]
In 2004, he was awarded the Business Center Club Press Prize.[52] In 2007, he was awarded the Ślad Award.[53] In 2011, he received the Wiktor award in the Wiktor Audience category for 2010, he was previously nominated for the Wiktor award in 2008 in the category The Greatest Television Discovery.[54] In 2008, he was awarded the MediaTory award by students of journalism from all over Poland in the NawigaTOR category.[55] In 2016, he was awarded the Honorary Medal by the Ombudsman for Children for Merit for the Protection of Children's Rights.[56]
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