Jakub Chełstowski

Jakub Piotr Chełstowski (born 7 April 1981) is a Polish executive and politician who served as the eighth marshal of Silesian Voivodeship and as a member of the Silesian Voivodeship Sejmik from 2018 to 2024. A member of Yes! For Poland (T!DPL) since 2022, he was previously a member of Law and Justice (PiS) from 2017 to 2022 and Tychy Our Little Homeland, a localist party in Tychy, from 2006 to 2017, which he led from 2014 to 2017.

Chełstowski was born in Tychy in 1981. He joined Tychy Our Little Homeland in 2006, becoming its vice-president before getting elected to represent the party on Tychy City Council in the 2010 Polish local elections, where he became leader of the opposition and feuded with Tychy's Civic Platform (PO) mayor Andrzej Dziuba, who he accused of corruption and mishandling funds. He became president of Tychy Our Little Homeland ahead of the 2014 local elections, where he was re-elected to a second term on the council and unsuccessfully stood against Dziuba for the mayoralty, coming in second place with 20 percent of the vote to Dziuba's 64 percent.

From 2015, Chełstowski associated himself with PiS in Silesia, formally joining the party and leaving Tychy Our Little Homeland in 2017. In 2018, he was elected to represent PiS on the Silesian Voivodeship Sejmik, which also elected him as the eighth marshal of Silesian Voivodeship, succeeding PO's Wojciech Saługa. He defected from PiS to join T!DPL in 2022 but continued to serve as marshal until 2024, when he was succeeded by Saługa who was elected for another term in the role.

Jakub Piotr Chełstowski^[1] was born in Tychy on 7 April 1981, the son of Zbigniew and Anna.^[2][3] He studied at Korczak University – Academy of Applied Sciences in Katowice, where he graduated with a master's degree in social science and pedagogy, and at SGH Warsaw School of Economics, where he received a postgraduate degree in business management.^[2] He completed his studies at the University of Economics in Katowice, where he graduated with a postgraduate degree in European project management in 2010.^[2][4]

In the late 2000s, Chełstowski worked as a community organiser for the Teresa housing cooperative in Tychy.^[4] He left Teresa in 2009 for the Oskard housing cooperative, also in Tychy, where he worked as a marketing and development specialist until 2014.^[5][6] He served as a probation officer at Tychy District Court from 2007 to 2014 and later became a director of ownership supervision and strategic assets at the Silesia Financial Society.^[6][7] He also became president of the Tychy-based Vistula Tourist Agency.^[8]

In 2006, Chełstowski joined the Tychy Nasza Mała Ojczyzna (English: Tychy Our Little Homeland) party, one of the main local political parties in Tychy, after watching televised Tychy City Council debates and agreeing with its localist policy platform.^[4] He became a close friend and associate of Witold Bańka, who was also active in the party at this time, and eventually rose up the ranks to become its vice president, having been encouraged to do so by its leadership for his high level of participation in the party and his youth.^[4]

Chełstowski first rose to public prominence in 2008, when he was sued for defamation by the municipal education board of Tychy after he suggested the board and Tychy City Council chair Michał Gramatyka were corrupt on an episode of the national television programme Misja specjalna, after the board granted Gramatyk a contract to run the official city website. The board sued Chełstowski for defamation but lost after a five month court battle, which concluded in March 2009 that he had the right to express his views and publicly scrutinise the city's public bodies.^[5]

After this, Chełstowski stood as a Tychy Our Little Homeland candidate on its electoral list for Tychy City Council in the 2010 local elections, where he successfully secured election.^[5] In the city council, he began a public feud with Tychy's Civic Platform mayor Andrzej Dziuba, who he accused of corruption and mishandling public funds.^[8][5] In his first term, Chełstowski broke the news that the council under Dziuba had spent around half-a-million złoty from 2009 to 2011 on catering services at special banquets for the mayor and his guests. He also opposed Dziuba's plans to privatise Tychy Hospital and worked with Solidarity to successfully pressure Dziuba to abandon the plans.^[5] After this, Dziuba reportedly attempted to have Chełstowski sacked from his job at Oskard in 2014, with the city council having the power to decide his dismissal, though he backed down after Solidarity and Chełstowski's supporters, including Michał Wójcik, protested against Chełstowski's dismissal outside Tychy City Council in February 2014.^[4][5]

In the run-up to the 2014 local elections, Chełstowski won a power struggle with the existing leadership of Tychy Our Little Homeland, seizing the party presidency and becoming leader of the opposition in the council after forcing the resignation of its previous president Barbara Konieczna when she tried to accept an offer by Dziuba to join him in a coalition administration.^[4][9] Chełstowski and the rest of the party opposed a coalition, and in the 2014 local elections Chełstowski stood as Tychy Our Little Homeland's candidate for the mayoralty of Tychy in a direct challenge to Dziuba's mayorship. He also agreed an electoral pact with the local branch of the Silesian Autonomy Movement, which endorsed Chełstowski's candidacy as mayor.^[4] In his mayoral campaign, Chełstowski ran on the slogan of a "modern, honest [and] safe Tychy" and accused Tychy City Council of failing to maintain checks and balances against Dziuba, highlighting that several senior city councillors and their family members had taken up senior positions in the local municipal bodies and agencies.^[5] The mayoral election was won by Dziuba, who was re-elected in the first round with 25,801 votes, or 64% of the vote, to Chełstowski's 7,474, or 20%.^[10][11][12] Chełstowski also led his party in the city council elections, where he was re-elected for a second term after the party's list came in fourth place with 5,933 votes.^[10]

He served as Marshal of Silesia from 2018 to 2024.

Chełstowski is married with a wife and two children.^[5]