European Parliament figures have been President of the Parliament and its predecessors. The first President was Paul-Henri Spaak MEP, one of the founding fathers of the Union. Other founding fathers include Alcide de Gasperi MEP and Robert Schuman MEP. The two female Presidents were Simone Veil MEP in 1979 (first President of the elected Parliament) and Nicole Fontaine MEP in 1999, both Frenchwomen. The previous president, Jerzy Buzek was the first East-Central European to lead an EU institution, a former Prime Minister of Poland who rose out of the Solidarity movement in Poland that helped overthrow communism in the Eastern Bloc. During
Józef Buzek worked as a statistician in Vienna and was a chairman of Statistic Office in Lwów. He was the first director of the Polish Central Statistical Office from 1918 to 1929. Buzek was a member of the Sejm (1919–1922) and the Senate (1922–1927). Buzek wrote many books about statistics, national and political issues. Józef Buzek is related to Jan Buzek and Jerzy Buzek, Polish politicians. Józef Buzek Józef Buzek (16 November 1873 in Końska – 22 September 1936 in Cieszyn) was a Polish lawyer, economist, statistician and politician from the region of Cieszyn Silesia. He was born in the village of