In Your Pocket’s adopted pet politician and favourite anti-hero, Andrzej Lepper, remains a permanent fixture on the front pages, and his dismissal in July as Poland’s deputy prime minister plunged the ruling coalition into crisis. News broke early in the month that Lepper, leader of Samoobrona (Self Defence), faced the axe following a probe into a 3 million złoty cash for land corruption scandal. Lepper followed this by announcing his intention to take Samobroona out of their coalition with PiS (Law and Justice), and forming an alliance with the nationalist LPR party (League of Polish Families), a move which would lead to early elections. While Lepper’s policies and actions face derision from a number of sensible Poles there’s no doubting this mans ability to make the headlines. Born in the tiny village of Stowięcino in 1954 Lepper’s early history alone makes his rise to fame all the more remarkable. His school record was poor, dropping out early from secondary education, though he did make use of his school years to master kickboxing, skills that he would apparently torment fellow pupils with. A farmer by trade he became a loyal card-carrying member of the communist party, though he would later become disillusioned as the party sank into ignominy. In 1992, with his farm facing imminent bankruptcy, Lepper chose to found a new political party, Samoobrona, with the intention of uniting farmers struggling under the new political system. What started life as a tiny minority party managed to grow into one of Poland’s most high profile movements, with Lepper feeding off rural discord and disillusionment with the new capitalist driven government policies. In 1995 his party polled just 1.5% of the vote, ten years later that share of the vote had grown to 15%, making it the third largest party represented in the Sejm (parliament). It was this success that allowed him the opportunity to enter a ruling coalition with PiS, and assume the role of deputy prime minister. Now, the dirt. Lepper might have theatrical, quiffed Elvis hair but this man is no joke. Previous stunts include criminal acts like dumping imported grain on roads, and leading his followers on a raid on a poultry farm, during which they distributed sausages to the poor. In 2001 he was sentenced to serve 16 months in prison for slander, a term he is in the process of appealing against, while last December he was implicated in a sleazy jobs for sex row. A paternity suit followed with DNA tests eventually clearing Lepper of fathering a child by one of the women who had broken ranks. With his name cleared Lepper launched into an infamous rant during which time he declared the woman a sexual deviant, before adding she should crawl from Gdańsk to Częstochowa on a road made of peas while beating herself on the head and apologizing to everyone. Candidate for In Your Pocket’s Quote of the Year? You bet.