Zjednoczona Lewica

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Zjednoczona Lewica (United Left; abbreviated ZL) was an electoral alliance of politically left parties that was formed for the 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland . Despite initial intentions to continue working together, the association was dissolved after the election defeat.

history

The electoral alliance was founded in July 2015. It united parties from the political left , liberalism and the green movement . The top candidate was Barbara Nowacka from Twój Ruch.

The aim of a joint election was to secure the re-entry of the left into the Sejm . After the disastrous election results of the candidates Magdalena Ogórek (SLD) and Janusz Palikot (Twój Ruch) in the presidential election in May 2015 as well as the poor polls in the following weeks, it was hoped that the merger would generate greater voter response in the parliamentary election in October.

This electoral alliance was the third attempt by parties on the left to celebrate greater success. In 2006 and 2007, Leftists and Democrats successfully united for the 2006 local elections and 2007 parliamentary elections . However, the Europa Plus initiative formed in 2014 for the 2014 European elections was unsuccessful .

The following six parties belonged to the United Left:

In the parliamentary elections , which took place on October 25, 2015, the alliance just missed the eight percent threshold for electoral alliances with 7.55% and stayed outside parliament.

Some political observers saw two main reasons for the United Left's poor performance: The coalition was concluded very late because of ideological disagreements between the SLD and Twój Ruch. This also made the election manifesto superficial and differed little from the social plans of the opposing right-wing conservative PiS . In addition, the competing left-wing party Partia Razem , which was founded five months before the elections and won 3.6% straight away, was able to wrest many votes from the left-wing alliance. Its success is due to a good appearance by Adrian Zandberg in the TV debate of all the top candidates in the final phase of the election campaign.

After the elections, the alliance was officially dissolved. Initially, the general intention was to continue to appear together under the umbrella brand Zjednoczona Lewica as an extra-parliamentary force, but this failed due to the unwillingness of some of the major parties.

Under the leadership of the then top candidate Barbara Nowacka , the new association Inicjatywa Polska (Initiative Poland) was presented at the end of February 2016 together with other (ex) members of left-wing parties . SLD neo-chief Włodzimierz Czarzasty , whose party does not support the new initiative, then declared the “United Left” project to be over for good.

Others

Almost at the same time, another movement called the “United Left” registered for the parliamentary election. Thus two different lists with identical names were registered with the electoral authority. This was a group of smaller left-wing parties that did not agree to the terms of the United Left and therefore formed their own alliance. This doppelganger, however, later renounced the candidacy and instead supported the liberal-conservative Platforma Obywatelska (PO) .

This identity of names caused amusement in the media for a short time, but it showed how divided the left-wing political scene in Poland is.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Note: The PPP did not join the United Left until it was founded and registered with the electoral authority and is therefore not officially listed.
  2. ↑ Left try Florian Kellermann's new beginning in: Deutschlandfunk from March 2, 2016
  3. ↑ Czarzasty: Zjednoczona Lewica przestała istnieć (Czarzasty: The United Left has ceased to exist), from: Parlamentarny.pl of February 22, 2016
  4. ↑ Miały być dwie Zjednoczone Lewice, będzie jedna (There should have been two United Left, there will be only one) from: TVN24 of September 15, 2015