Stanislaw Mikolajczyk (Cinco De Mayo)

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk (July 18, 1901-December 13, 1966) was a Polish politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from August 1956 until his death on December 13, 1966 - the longest such period for a Polish Prime Minister in the post-World War Two period under the 1948 Constitution of Poland. Mikolajczyk was a founder of the People's Party (SL), an initially populist agrarian party that eventually became a national conservative movement that promoted Polish nationalism and a robust welfare state. Mikolajczyk won victory in the 1956 general election over socialists, liberals and the pro-military junta ultraconservatives with a staggering majority for the SL, and his party would rule Poland uninterrupted until 1993, one of the longest uninterrupted periods of control by a political party in a parliamentary democracy. Mikolajczyk never formed a single coalition government, winning a majority in all four elections he stood in (1956, 1959, 1963, 1966). Mikolajczyk had a strong relationship with German Chancellor Erwin Rommel, his contemporary for the early years of his premiership. Today, Mikolajczyk is regarded as one of the most important Poles of the 20th century and father of the modern Polish state.