Poland’s parliament has got talent: how a TV star became a political powerhouse | Wojciech Orliński

It was surreal when Szymon Hoownia, our answer to Simon Cowell, became speaker. But he has made the legislature a YouTube hit

Who is the most popular politician in Poland today? Not, as you might expect, the new prime minister, Donald Tusk, nor is it the defeated leader of the opposition, Jarosaw Kaczyski. It is not the president, Andrzej Duda, an ally of Kaczyski's arch-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ran Poland for eight years before elections last October. No, the most popular politician in Poland is the newly elected speaker of the parliament, Szymon Hoownia.

Even keen observers of Polish politics can be excused for not having heard of Hoownia, as he is a newcomer to Poland's legislature, the Sejm. He is famous in Poland but not, until recently, for political reasons. For more than a decade, he was the co-host of the TV show Poland's Got Talent!.