Political parties in Poland

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to the model of party democracy, the political parties in Poland largely determine Polish politics . The current party system , which has existed since 1989, is constantly changing. In addition to established parties that have existed for decades, party foundations and changes in MPs between the parties can also be observed.

history

The first parties emerged in Poland as early as 1573 and decisively determined the politics of the Sejm, which at that time was still aristocratic . After Polish independence was regained in 1918, a modern but very confrontational party system was rapidly consolidated, initially dominated by the center-right, but from 1926 under the influence of the Sanacja , a military dictatorial regime under the leadership of Józef Piłsudski and his followers of the Colonels.

Logo of the PZPR

In the years between 1944 and 1948 - after liberation from the German occupation in World War II - the Polish communists of the Polish Workers' Party ( Polska Partia Robotnicza , PPR), which were massively supported by the Soviet Union , fought for supremacy in post-war Poland. They competed with the socialists of the Polish Socialist Party ( Polska Partia Socjalistyczna , PPS), which was infiltrated by the state security organs of the Polish Communists and the Soviet Union in order to enable a communist takeover. In addition to these parties, there was also the popular and centristically oriented Polish People's Party ( Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe , PSL). There were also the two splinter parties to the left of the spectrum, the Labor Party ( Stronnictwo Pracy , SP) and the People's Party ( Stronnictwo Ludowe , SL). Only the small, liberal-democratic and still existing Democratic Alliance ( Stronnictwo Demokratieyczne , SD) was able to maintain a certain degree of independence.

In 1947 the PPR tried to establish a uniform electoral list with common candidates using the system of an electoral block. All parties were invited to participate. Over the years, Josef Stalin became one of the most decisive arbitrators and interfered significantly in Polish domestic politics. The Communism or Stalinism , however, was not introduced until after 1948 due to civil war-like conditions between the political camps. In the same year, the PPR and the PPS were forced to merge (similar to that between the SPD and KPD to form the SED ). The PPS experienced massive political cleansing and opponents of the new regime were pushed out of party and government offices. The new party was now called the Polish United Workers' Party ( Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza , PZPR). Its leaders were Bolesław Bierut and Władysław Gomułka .

After 1948 the PZPR became the leading party that determined the government alone. However, as in the GDR , there were also block parties that appeared in the Sejm , which was still in operation : the United Peasant Party ( Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe , ZSL), the aforementioned SD and smaller Catholic groups.

Since the turning point

As a result of the change in the political system in 1989 , a very diverse party system developed in Poland, which was initially subject to frequent changes due to the still fresh structures and lack of institutional traditions. In this situation, ambitious individuals with their own parties tried again and again to get larger groups of voters behind them. The introduction of a threshold clause of 5 percent for parties and 8 percent for electoral alliances in 1993 ensured that these projects remained short-lived and that a greater process of concentration within the party system began.

The following camp-related phases of government can also be identified since 1989:

1989-1993 The turbulent phase of the “solidarity government”, consisting of changing coalitions of different successor parties to the democratic opposition movement and characterized by strong party fragmentation, frequent cabinet reshuffles and radical reforms under the then Minister of Economics Leszek Balcerowicz .
1993-1997 The long and first phase of post-communist governments and the return of former socialist party cadres such as Józef Oleksy and Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz , as well as the rise of their successor party SLD, synonymous with the desire of the electorate for more state protectionism.
1997-2001 The second but short “post-solidarity government” under the later President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek and the conservative AWS and thus the last phase of a united center-right camp, characterized by renewed radical reforms at all levels.
2001-2005 The second reign of the post-communist SLD, which has now been transformed into social democrats, and which can be seen as a high phase, shaped by Poland's accession to the European Union under Prime Minister Leszek Miller .
2005-2007 The first short phase of the “populist government”, brought about by the breakup of the center-right camp and the fragmentation of the left spectrum, consisting of the national-conservative PiS around Jarosław Kaczyński , the nationalist LPR and the agrarian-left-populist Samoobrona .
2007-2015 The long and stable phase of the liberal-conservative coalition of the economically liberal PO and the agrarian-conservative PSL under Prime Minister Donald Tusk , followed by Ewa Kopacz in 2014 after his election as President of the European Council .
since 2015 The second and long phase of the “populist government”, consisting of the predominantly sole ruling national-conservative PiS, until 2017 under Prime Minister Beata Szydło , currently under Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and characterized by far-reaching reforms in the state.

Legal framework

The Polish Constitution of 1997 lays down the objectives and principles according to which the parties function and are organized. Article 13, which stipulates the prohibition of parties, should be emphasized:

“The existence of political parties and other organizations that refer in their programs to the totalitarian methods and practices of Nazism , fascism and communism is prohibited . It is also forbidden to exist parties whose program or activity requires or permits racial hatred or hatred of nationalities, violence for the purpose of taking power or exerting influence on state politics, as well as providing for the concealment of structures or membership. "

At least 1,000 citizens entitled to vote are required to found a party. Individual groups of people such as judges, public prosecutors, police officers, soldiers or state officials are not allowed to be members of a party. The constitution also regulates party funding . State subsidies are only given to parties that achieve at least 3 percent of the vote in an election. Economic activity of the parties is not allowed.

General election 2015

Allocation of seats in the Sejm since 2015

The parliamentary elections for the eighth legislative term took place on October 25, 2015 , from which five parties managed to enter the Sejm , the Polish lower house. The national-conservative Law and Justice party ( Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) managed to achieve an absolute majority in the Sejm and Senate under Prime Minister Beata Szydło , which is a novelty in the Third Polish Republic . The previously ruling coalition of the economically liberal Civic Platform ( Platforma Obywatelska , PO) and the agrarian-conservative Polish People's Party ( Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe , PSL) was voted out after two legislative periods and together has only 154 seats. The center-left alliance United Left ( Zjednoczona Lewica , ZL) failed to meet the threshold of 8 percent applicable to multi-party electoral alliances.

For the first time since 1989, no left-wing party is represented in parliament. The electoral committee Kukiz '15 of the rock musician Paweł Kukiz and the liberal party .Nowoczesna of the economist Ryszard Petru are represented in parliament for the first time. The election result is known as a shift to the right.

Political spectrum

The right-left scheme used for Western European party systems is only partially applicable to the Polish party landscape. The division into “ left ”, “ center ” and “ right ” can only serve as a rough indicator for the political spectrum in Poland, which is primarily based on cultural-ideological-normative criteria and gives a different picture from the perspective of the socio-economic program of the parties would. A localization according to socio-economic positions of the parties between state interventionism and free market economy as well as cultural-ideological-normative attitudes of the parties between nationalism and cosmopolitanism appears more plausible.

The lines of conflict on which the Polish party system has been oriented since the founding of the so-called Third Polish Republic have mainly been on the cultural-ideological-normative axis. It is only since the 2001 parliamentary elections that socio-economic issues have played a greater role. In the 1990s, these were overlaid by other topics, although they nonetheless had a structuring effect. They also came to the fore again during the election years of 2014 (municipal elections) and 2015 (presidential and parliamentary elections).

The following lines of conflict are decisive for the self-designation or positioning of the Polish parties:

Political left

Logo of the SLD

Currently the two strongest groups by far on the political left in Poland are the League of Democratic Left ( Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej , SLD), which has now broken away from its post-communist past, and the joint party founded in 2015 ( Razem ).

The politically most successful phase of the political left in Poland is the period between 1993 and 2005, when left parties won two parliamentary elections and formed coalitions with the PSL (see section: The Middle), from 1993 to 1997 (SLD-PSL) and 2001– 2004 (SLD-UP-PSL) the government, as well as with Aleksander Kwaśniewski from 1995 to 2005 the president. Significant events such as the adoption of the 1997 constitution and Poland's accession to the EU also take place during this period.

Domestically, the SLD represents social democratic goals; in terms of foreign policy, it is interested in close cooperation within the European Union and NATO . He calls for a socially acceptable implementation of the transformation processes. In relation to the church, the party shows itself to be strictly secular, with occasional anti-clerical undertones, even though the federal government was the one that introduced religious instruction in schools.

The SLD was founded in 1991 as a coalition of about 30 different groups and in particular the Social Democracy of Poland ( Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland , SdRP) as successor party of the communist Polish United Workers 'Party ( Polish United Workers' Party , PZPR) and the All-Poland Trade Union Federation ( Ogólnopolskie Porozumienie Związków Zawodowych , OPZZ) dominates. In 1999 the electoral alliance was officially transformed into a party.

In 2001 the SLD achieved its biggest victory in the parliamentary elections with 41 percent of the vote. His then top candidate Leszek Miller became Prime Minister of a coalition with the Social Democratic Workers' Union (Unia Pracy, UP ) and the Agraic PSL, which, however, left the coalition in March 2003. Shortly after joining the European Union in May 2004, Miller resigned. He was succeeded by Marek Belka . However, due to corruption affairs, especially the Rywin affair, the initially large approval of the SLD waned. In addition, during a deep crisis of confidence in March 2004, there was a brief split in the party until 2005 under the leadership of the then Speaker of Parliament, Marek Borowski . As a result, the party was severely punished and lost nearly 30% of the vote in the 2005 parliamentary election.

From 2007 the political left in Poland was represented by the electoral alliance Left and Democrats ( Lewica i Demokraci , LiD). With their top candidate, former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the alliance received 13.15 percent of the vote. In 2005 the individual parties united in the alliance still achieved a total of 17.65 percent. The expectations of a merger were therefore not met. In 2008, the alliance dissolved again, but remained represented as a parliamentary group in the Sejm until the next election in autumn 2011.

In the parliamentary elections of 2011 , the left-liberal Palikot movement managed to make a surprising entry into the Sejm, where it immediately became the third-strongest force with 10.2%, ahead of the SLD. Founded by its chairman Janusz Palikot , a former member of the PO , to which the left wing was assigned, it represents positions of clear anti-clericalism , social-liberalism , a reoriented social democracy and strong progressivism . However, with its secular and strongly polarizing rhetoric, the party increasingly lost its approval, so that in 2015, together with the SLD, as well as several smaller parties of the left spectrum, it drew up a joint list to vote for the Sejm, the United Left ( Zjednoczona Lewica, ZL ). With 7.6%, the ZL narrowly missed entry into the Sejm due to the 8 percent threshold for electoral alliances, which means that for the first time since the beginning of the Third Republic, no left party is represented in parliament.

On the other hand, the Razem party, which had only been founded six months earlier, achieved a respectable success by achieving 3.6%. It is programmatically oriented towards democratic socialism and progressivism and tries to differentiate itself from the established parties.

Political center

In the political center of the party landscape, on the one hand, there are liberal or liberal-conservative parties such as the Modern Party ( Nowoczesna, .N ) and the Civic Platform ( Platforma Obywatelska , PO), on the one hand, and the moderate, agrarian Polish People's Party ( Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe , PSL).

The latter is one of the oldest among the parties currently active in Poland and is the only one that is continuously represented in the Sejm of the Third Republic. While it was seen more as a center-left party in the 1990s, since the 2000s it has been viewed as centrist, moderate-conservative and capable of forming a coalition with all other parties - with the exception of the extreme ones. Your main concern here is to represent the rural population and the agricultural sector. Today's PSL sees itself in the tradition of the Polish farmers' party of the same name, which existed from the 19th century until the outbreak of World War II.

The centrist , liberal and Christian democratic spectrum in Poland already acquired great political importance at the time of the fall of the Wall. After the round table agreements and the first partially free elections in June 1989 , the Solidarność Citizens' Committee ( Komitet Obywatelski Solidarność, KOS), which comprised the entire, very heterogeneous spectrum of the Solidarność trade union, succeeded in appointing the Prime Minister. This was initially Tadeusz Mazowiecki , who was then followed by Jan Krzysztof Bielecki , both of whom can be assigned to the Christian Democratic, liberal currents. In addition, the liberal economist Leszek Balcerowicz played a prominent role in the transition to a market economy in his dual role as deputy prime minister and finance minister . The ideological differences within Solidarnosc that had already emerged during the so-called “ Contract Sejm ”, as well as the opposition groups as a whole, led to a very strong fragmentation of the party landscape in the first completely free elections in autumn 1991 . In the absence of a threshold clause, 29 parties were able to enter the Sejm, 11 of them with only one seat. The formation of a government was correspondingly difficult. After three failed attempts, new elections were called in 1993 after almost two years . However, the previous change in the electoral law was clearly underestimated by the post-Solidarnosc groups - above all the introduced threshold of 5% - so that all of them with the exception of the Democratic Union ( Unia Demokratyczna , UD) fail to enter the Sejm and the post-communist SLD and PSL formed the government. Not least because of this political defeat it was possible to consolidate both the political center and the right (see section: The Right). The UD , which emerged from the 1991 elections with 12.3 percent as the strongest party and with Hanna Suchocka as Prime Minister made the last attempt to form a government before the new elections, left the citizens' movement Democratic Action in 1990 ( Ruch Obywatelski Akcja Demokratyczna, ROAD). This initially bundled that part of the liberal spectrum of Solidarność, which Mazowiecki's policy of the "thick line", as well as his 1990 presidential candidacy against Lech Walesa significantly supported. Some well-known personalities within the UD were also Bronisław Geremek , Jacek Kuroń , Adam Michnik and Władysław Frasyniuk .

The ideal basis was formed by market economy ( Balcerowicz Plan ), pro-Western ( European integration ) and cosmopolitan attitudes. Nevertheless, there were different currents within the party, especially the social and left-wing liberal on the one hand and the Christian liberal on the other.

In 1994, the UD merged with the Liberal Democratic Congress ( Kongres Liberalno-Demokratieyczny , KLD) around Donald Tusk and Janusz Lewandowski to form the Freedom Union ( Unia Wolności , UW). This broadened the programmatic basis and now ranged from a social-liberal wing close to social democracy to a liberal-conservative wing close to the conservatives and could be viewed as centrist overall.

Logo of the PO

With a clear, EU-friendly liberalism as the connecting element, Balcerowicz replaced Mazowciecki as party leader of the UW in 1995 and achieved the best result in its history in the 1997 parliamentary election with over 13 percent, which the formation of a government with the conservative election campaign Solidarity ( Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność , AWS) made possible. Although joining NATO in 1999 was a great success in terms of foreign and security policy, the coalition government proved to be difficult. The so-called “second Balcerowicz Plan” as an important economic reform program failed due to resistance from the AWS. Geremek took over the party leadership in 2000. Before the 2001 elections there could be a split: Former supporters of the KLD such as Tusk founded the citizens' platform ( Platforma Obywatelska , PO) together with parts of the AWS . This maintained its economic liberalism and the strong pro-European stance, but especially at the beginning of its existence, it moved in a much more conservative direction than the UW. Against this background, the latter shifted further to the left towards left-wing liberalism in the following years .

While the UW failed to get into the Sejm in the 2001 elections and in 2005 after it was renamed the Democratic Party ( Partia Demokratyczna or Demokraci, PD), the PO managed to take over large parts of their electorate and initially opposed itself as the largest opposition force the SLD , then the PiS to be established. In the early parliamentary elections of 2007 , the PD received several seats again through the electoral alliance LiD (see section: Die Linke), before being eliminated entirely in 2011. The PO moved into the Sejm as the strongest force with a record result of 41.1 percent. She formed the government until the last election in 2015 under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, later Ewa Kopacz with her coalition partner, the PSL , and from 2010 to 2015 she was President Bronislaw Komorowski . In 2015 the PO lost a considerable amount of votes, fell back to the result of 2005 with 24 percent and is thus again the strongest party in the opposition.

The modern party with its chairman Ryszard Petru , which won 7.6% , has been new to parliament since the last election . In terms of content, it represents both social and economic liberalism and is sometimes compared with the UW or PD .

Political rights

As on the left, there was also an attempt on the right wing of Polish politics to bundle the Christian-Democratic, conservative and nationalist forces , which had been split up in 1990, into a powerful party. After the election campaign Solidarity ( Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność , AWS) , which emerged from numerous groups in 1996 , won the parliamentary elections with 33.8 percent by a large margin over the SLD with only 27.1 percent, Jerzy Buzek took over - initially in a coalition with the UW, later in a minority government - government responsibility. Shortly after the election, however, there were signs of erosion, which is why the party gradually split up. In 2001, the remaining rump party in an electoral alliance with the right-wing Catholic movement for the reconstruction of Poland ( Ruch Odbudowy Polski , ROP) only got 5.6 percent of the vote and no longer entered the Sejm. On the other hand, the parties that emerged from it and fought for the leadership of the right were more successful.

The two currently strongest parties in Poland are the national-conservative Law and Justice Party ( Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) and the liberal-conservative Civic Platform ( Platforma Obywatelska , PO). But while the latter has moved back into the middle of the political spectrum over time, the PiS has established itself as the clearly most important grouping of the political right

In 2005, PiS won the presidential elections with its candidate Lech Kaczynski and, unexpectedly, the elections to the Sejm in 2005 with 27 percent of the vote. Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz became prime minister, but in July 2006 he had to vacate his post in favor of party leader Jarosław Kaczyński , the twin brother of the ruling president. Kaczynski's coalition with the nationalist League of Polish Families ( League of Polish Families , LPR) and a left-populist classifiable Self-Defense ( Samoobrona RP , however,) broke so that in October 2007 elections were needed, where although the PiS added rose by around five percentage points, but fell behind the PO. Both previous coalition partners failed at the five percent hurdle and have since sunk into political insignificance. In the following 8 years the PiS remained in the opposition and in the meantime had to cope with internal disputes and splits.

In July 2014 the conservative spectrum finally managed to consolidate. Sun signed Kaczyński with the party leaders of the previously split off from PiS party Solidarity Poland ( United Poland, SP) Zbigniew Ziobro , and Jarosław Gowin , former Attorney General of the PO and leader of the liberal economic , conservative values Party Poland Together United Rights (Poland Together Zjednoczona Prawica, PRZP ) an agreement that stipulated that all three parties would run as a common grouping in the next elections, as well as propose a common presidential candidate. With the PO's approval rating dwindling in the wake of the 2014 wiretapping affair , but especially after its lost presidential elections in 2015 against the national-conservative coalition of PiS , SP and PRZP , which appears together under the name of United Rights ( Zjednoczona Prawica, ZP), the alliance won Approval, so that she succeeded in winning the 2015 parliamentary elections with 37.76%, which was enough for an absolute majority of the seats in the Sejm.

In terms of content, the ZP propagates Catholic-conservative values, such as the traditional family, the day of rest on Sunday , opposes the equality of homosexuals , gender mainstreaming , in vitro fertilization and euthanasia . In terms of economic policy, the alliance represents welfare state and interventionist approaches. In terms of foreign and migration policy, it is close to the USA and the other Visegrad countries , is skeptical of the EU - although not willing to leave - and particularly rejects the EU refugee quotas .

In addition to the currently ruling United Right, there are three other noteworthy political groups that are represented either in the Sejm or in the European Parliament :

On the one hand the election committee Kukiz'15 (K'15), the rock musician Pawel Kukiz . It arose as a result of the surprisingly high popularity of 21%, which made Kukiz third in the previous 2015 presidential elections. Although Kukiz deliberately made his committee's electoral lists open to people from all political camps, it was mainly conservative, liberal or libertarian ( UPR , KNP , Republicans ) and nationalist candidates ( RN ) who entered the Sejm. Despite the lack of a fixed ideology , according to its founder, the Kukiz movement should campaign against the " party state ", the "system" and for more direct democracy and majority voting. There is also a more or less strong general skepticism towards the EU.

Members of the Catholic Nationalist National Movement ( Ruch Narodowy, RN), such as their party leader Robert Winnicki , also entered the Sejm via Kukiz's electoral list - but at the beginning of 2016, the official end of the cooperation between the nationalists and Kukiz. The right-wing extremist movement, which has existed as a party since December 2014, sees itself in the tradition of the nationalist camp Nationale Demokratie ( Narodowa Demokracja, Endecja) around Roman Dmowski, which was influential in the interwar period in Poland .

Furthermore, the Freedom Party (Wolnosc, abbreviation KORWiN), led by Janusz Korwin-Mikke , is another party within the right-wing spectrum, the social conservatism (rejection of same-sex marriage , abortion and euthanasia, reintroduction of the death penalty and free possession of weapons ) with economic libertarian politics ( minimal state and laissez-faire economy ) and a radical EU skepticism. In the 2015 parliamentary elections, she just failed the 5% hurdle with 4.8%, but is represented by two members in the EU Parliament.

See also

literature

  • Dieter Bingen: Poland. How an unstable party system helps to stabilize democracy. In: Ellen Bos, Dieter Segert (Ed.): Eastern European Democracies as Trendsetters? Parties and party systems after the end of the transition decade. Opladen 2008, pp. 77-90.
  • Florian Grotz: Political Institutions and Post-Socialist Party Systems in East Central Europe. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in comparison. Opladen 2000.
  • Michael Holländer: Lines of conflict and configuration of the party systems in East Central Europe 1988–2002. Norderstedt 2003.
  • Christoph Kotowski: Populism in Poland. A bipartisan phenomenon. 2nd Edition. Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-95684-228-3 .
  • Csilla Machos: disintegration and restructuring. Party systems in East Central Europe since the 1997/98 parliamentary elections. In: Southeast Europe. 50, 7-9, 2001, pp. 403-440.
  • Anna Niewiadomska-Frieling: Political Parties of Poland after 1989. Berlin 2006.
  • Karsten Schmitz: Electoral systems and party systems in Eastern Europe. Analysis of the influence of the electoral systems on the party systems of Eastern Europe in the transformation process. Saarbrücken 2008.
  • Tom Thieme: Change in the party systems in the countries of East Central Europe: Stability and effectiveness through concentration effects? In: Journal for Parliamentary Issues . 39, 4, 2008, pp. 795-809.
  • Konstanty Adam Wojtaszczyk: The party system in Poland. In: The Political System of Poland. 2001, pp. 105-112.
  • Klaus Ziemer : The political order. In: Dieter Bingen, Krzysztof Ruchniewicz: Country Report Poland. Bonn 2009, pp. 147–191.
  • Klaus Ziemer, Claudia-Yvette Matthes: The political system of Poland. In: Wolfgang Ismayr (Ed.): The political systems of Eastern Europe in comparison. Opladen 2004.
  • Klaus Ziemer: Parliament - parties - elections. In: Jochen Franzke (Ed.): Modern Poland. State and society in transition. Berlin 2003, pp. 24-45.

Web links

Commons : Political parties in Poland  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files