Poland's prospective prime minister a conservative woman who rose in male-dominated politics

WARSAW, Poland – The conservative Law and Justice Party, which won Poland's general elections, has tapped Beata Szydlo to become the nation's next prime minister — the second woman in a row to hold the post. Here are key facts about the 52-year-old politician.

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STRONG CAMPAIGNER:

In the spring, Szydlo ran the presidential campaign of Andrzej Duda, then a little-known figure who pulled off a shock upset of the widely-favored incumbent.

On the heels of that success, party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski named Szydlo the Euro-skeptic party's candidate to lead the government in the fall parliamentary elections.

PERSONAL TOUCH:

Szydlo says her success lies in listening and talking to ordinary people, and she won much support by criss-crossing Poland in her campaign "Szydlobus." That personal touch may be a key asset as she attempts to bridge a widening divide between Poles who have benefited from the nation's economic boom and those who feel they have been left out, and look to her party for help.

COAL-MINER'S DAUGHTER:

Szydlo was born Beata Maria Kusinska in 1963 to a coal mining family near Oswiecim, in southern Poland, where she was raised in the shadow of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. Her maternal great- grandfather died in Auschwitz as a Polish inmate. Her maternal grandfather suffered burns in a fire in the nearby Brzeszcze coal mine. Her father, also a coal miner, wanted her to be a mining engineer. She once told The Associated Press that she sometimes regrets she did not follow that advice.

RAPID RISE:

At the age of 35 she became southern Poland's youngest county mayor in Brzeszcze, and developed key road infrastructure there. She was also the town's deputy chairman of the firefighters, a role traditionally held by men. It was a first sign Szydlo could succeed in Poland's male-dominated political world. She became Law and Justice lawmaker in 2005, and later deputy to Kaczynski.

U.S. EXPERIENCE:

In 2003, Szydlo, as Brzeszcze mayor, spent almost three months traveling in the U.S. on a State Department visitors' program on revitalizing post-industrial areas. She visited Washington D.C., New York, San Diego and other cities. "I have very good memories from that visit and I would be very happy to repeat it," she said in an interview with the AP over the summer.

FAMILY LIFE:

A practicing Catholic, Szydlo is married to her university sweetheart, Edward Szydlo, who as a student shared her passion for handball. They have two sons: Tymoteusz, who is studying to be a priest, and Blazej, a medical student.