Tomasz Mariusz Froelich (born 15 October 1988) is a German politician of Alternative for Germany who was elected member of the European Parliament in 2024.[1] He has served as vice chair of the Young Alternative since 2019.[2]
Tomasz Froelich | |
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![]() Tomasz Froelich (2024) | |
Member of the European Parliament | |
Assumed office 16 July 2024 | |
Constituency | Germany |
Personal details | |
Born | Tomasz Mariusz Froelich 15 October 1988 Hamburg |
Political party | Alternative for Germany |
Other political affiliations | Europe of Sovereign Nations |
Relatives | Adolf Froelich (great-grandfather) |
Alma mater | University of Vienna |
Education
editFroelich was born in Hamburg and spent his childhood there and in Szczecin. He graduated from the Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Hamburg in 2008. He then studied political science and international development at the University of Vienna and socioeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.[3] During and after his studies, he was a research assistant at Martin Rhonheimer's Austrian Institute of Economics & Social Philosophy.
Political career
editAs a teenager, Froelich was a member of the Young Liberals. During his studies, Froelich ran the right-wing libertarian blog Freitum, which received the Roland Baader Award in 2012.[4] He published for media that are classified as right-wing populist and libertarian, including eigentümlich frei,[5] Freilich,[6] Krautzone, Junge Freiheit, Blaue Narzisse and Schweizerzeit. After completing his studies, he initially worked as a parliamentary advisor to the AfD parliamentary group in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament from June 2016. After a short time, he became office manager for the then AfD party leader Jörg Meuthen.[7] In 2019, he became press spokesperson for the AfD delegation in the European Parliament. Froelich has been deputy federal chairman of the Young Alternative for Germany since February 2019.[8] From 2019 to 2021, he was state chairman of the Young Alternative for Hamburg.[9] In 2022, he became parliamentary advisor to the Identity and Democracy parliamentary group. In July 2023, Froelich was elected to 12th place on the list for the 2024 European elections at the AfD national party conference in Magdeburg.[10] He entered the European Parliament in 2024 via this list position. There, he is a member of the Committee on Human Rights (DROI) and a substitute member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and the Committee on Development (DEVE).[11]
Trivia and personal life
editFroelich played football for VfL 93 Hamburg in the then fourth-tier Oberliga Nord[12] and was nominated for the Polish U18 national team together with Robert Lewandowski in 2006.[13]
He is married.
The German-Polish inventor Adolf Froelich is his great-grandfather.
Awards and honours
edit- 2012: Roland Baader Award
References
edit- ^ "European Parliament election 2024". Federal Returning Officer.
- ^ "Schlimmer als gedacht". T-Online. 4 August 2023.
- ^ "Europawahl: Diese 15 AfD-Abgeordneten ziehen in das Europaparlament ein". www.swp.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "ROLAND BAADER-Auszeichnung | Roland Baader". Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "Tomasz M. Froelich - eigentümlich frei". ef-magazin.de. Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "Tomasz M. Froelich". FREILICH Magazin (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "Die AfD im Stuttgarter Landtag | Heinrich Böll Stiftung Baden-Württemberg". www.boell-bw.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "Junge Alternative: In der AfD-Jugend kam es in den letzten Monaten zu einem Massenexodus - WELT". DIE WELT (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ Kosanke, Laura (2021-08-02). "Wie junge Politiker in Hamburg den Wahlkampf aufmischen". www.abendblatt.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "Schlimmer als gedacht: Die zweifelhaften Gestalten der AfD für Europa". www.t-online.de (in German). 2023-08-04. Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "Home | Tomasz FROELICH | MEPs | European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu. 1988-10-15. Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ "Tomasz Froelich". weltfussball.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-14.
- ^ "U-18: Loda i P?otka w kadrze na konsultacj? w Bielsku-Bia?ej". www.pomorskifutbol.pl. 2006-04-04. Retrieved 2024-08-14.