Presidential election in Poland 1922 (December 9th)

The first presidential election in Poland took place in Warsaw on December 9, 1922 . The National Assembly elected Gabriel Narutowicz as the first President of the Republic of Poland .

background

The "March Constitution" passed on March 17, 1921 determined the introduction of the office of State President, which mainly had representative powers. In doing so, the conservative parties and politicians intended to curtail the powers of the head of state, as they expected that Józef Piłsudski , who had great authority, would bring together the required majority for his candidacy in a presidential election. After the parliamentary elections on November 5 and 12, 1922, after the international situation had stabilized, Saturday, December 9, 1922, was set as the date of the meeting of the National Assembly. This consisted of the delegates of the Sejm and the senators . Surprisingly, on December 4th, Józef Piłsudski announced that he would not take part in the election. The parliamentary groups were thus forced to identify promising candidates within a few days.

The vote

Candidates

• 

  J. Baudouin de Courtenay

• 

  Ignacy Daszyński

• 

  Gabriel Narutowicz

• 

  Stanisław Wojciechowski

• 

  Maurycy Zamoyski

The following candidates were proposed for election by the political groups in the National Assembly:

• Jan Ignacy Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay - linguist, professor at the University of Warsaw , former professor at the University of Petersburg and University of Krakow , proposed by the members of the national minorities
• Ignacy Daszyński - private teacher, professional politician, acting deputy Sejm Marshal, former member of the Austrian Reichsrat (1897-1918), 1918 Prime Minister of a provisional government of Poland and 1920-1921 Deputy Prime Minister, socialist ( Polish Socialist Party )
• Gabriel Narutowicz - hydraulic engineer, acting foreign minister, former professor at ETH Zurich , former minister for public works (1920–1922), proposed by the moderate left farmers' party “Liberation”
• Stanisław Wojciechowski - presser, cooperative, co-founder and until 1905 member of the Polish Socialist Party, former Minister of the Interior (1919–1920), proposed by the centric to moderate right-wing peasant party "Piast"
• Maurycy Zamoyski - landowner , former Count of Russia, ambassador in Paris , proposed by the union of nationalist and Christian-democratic parties

The votes

The National Assembly began its first session in the early afternoon, chaired by Sejm Marshal Maciej Rataj . Voting was made in a secret ballot by inserting a ballot.

Warsaw, December 9, 1922

Ballot	candidate	Number of votes	%	Political party
1st ballot, 2:10 p.m.	Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay	103	19.04%	National minorities
	Ignacy Daszyński	49	9.06%	PPS
	Gabriel Narutowicz	62	11.46%	PSL "Liberation"
	Stanisław Wojciechowski	105	19.41%	PSL "Piast"
	Maurycy Zamoyski	222	41.04%	ChZJN
2nd ballot, 3:30 p.m.	Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay	10	1.84%	National minorities
	Ignacy Daszyński	1	0.18%	PPS
	Gabriel Narutowicz	151	27.81%	PSL "Liberation"
	Stanisław Wojciechowski	153	28.18%	PSL "Piast"
	Maurycy Zamoyski	228	41.99%	ChZJN
	Invalid votes	4th
3rd ballot, 4:50 p.m.	Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay	5	0.92%	National minorities
	Gabriel Narutowicz	158	29.21%	PSL "Liberation"
	Stanisław Wojciechowski	150	27.73%	PSL "Piast"
	Maurycy Zamoyski	228	42.14%	ChZJN
4th ballot, 5:45 p.m.	Gabriel Narutowicz	171	31.67%	PSL "Liberation"
	Stanisław Wojciechowski	145	26.85%	PSL "Piast"
	Maurycy Zamoyski	224	41.48%	ChZJN
5th ballot, 7:15 p.m.	Gabriel Narutowicz	289	56.01%	PSL "Liberation"
	Maurycy Zamoyski	227	43.9%	ChZJN
	Invalid votes	25th
Gabriel Narutowicz was thus elected the first President of the Republic of Poland .

When asked by Chairman Rataj, Narutowicz replied in the affirmative when asked whether he would accept the election. Due to the late hour of the day, the National Assembly for the swearing-in was postponed until the following Monday, December 11th.

After the election

The right-wing forces were surprised by the election of Narutowicz, as the members of the Polish Peasant Party “Piast”, desired as a coalition partner, had apparently supported the candidate of the rival peasant party “Liberation”. On the evening of December 9th, a right-wing protest began with street marches and street riots. She found support in a smear campaign by the nationalist press, in which the president, who was also elected with the votes of the national minorities, was insulted, among other things, as a “Jewish bastard”.

On December 11th, the demonstrators tried to prevent Narutowicz from coming to the second session of the National Assembly, but they did not succeed, although snowballs were thrown at the President-Elekt and attempts were made to hit him with sticks . Narutowicz, accused of atheism by the right wing , has sworn a Christian oath of office. Three days later, on December 14th, he solemnly took over the powers of the head of state from the resigning head of state Józef Piłsudski in the Belvedere Palace .

The next election of the president had to take place eleven days after the first election, on December 20, 1922, as Narutowicz succumbed to his injuries on December 16 after a gun attack by the fanatical nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski .

Footnotes

1. ↑ Ustawa z dnia 17 marca 1921 r. - Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. In: Dziennik Ustaw, sejm.gov.pl. March 17, 1921, accessed December 9, 2012 .  
2. ↑ ^{a b} Protokuł przekazania władzy przez Naczelnika Państwa Józefa Piłsudskiego Prezydentowi Rzeczypospolitej Gabrjelowi Narutowiczowi. In: Dziennik Ustaw, sejm.gov.pl. December 15, 1921, accessed December 9, 2012 .  

literature

• Daria Nałęcz, Tomasz Nałęcz : Gabriel Narutowicz, prezydent Rzeczypospolitej 14 XII – 16 XII 1922 . In: Andrzej Chojnowski, Piotr Wróbel (Ed.): Prezydenci i premierzy Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej . Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich, Wydawnictwo, Breslau, Warsaw, Krakow 1992, ISBN 83-04-03854-4 , p. 36-48 .