Civic Platform is a centre-right liberal political party in Poland. Since 2021, it has been led by Donald Tusk, who previously led it from 2003 to 2014 and was president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019.
The Polish People's Party is an agrarian political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
From 1989 through 1991, Poland engaged in a democratic transition which put an end to the Polish People's Republic and led to the foundation of a democratic government, known as the Third Polish Republic, following the First and Second Polish Republic. After ten years of democratic consolidation, Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union on 1 May 2004.
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician and historian who has served as prime minister of Poland since 2023. Tusk previously served as prime minister from 2007 to 2014, and as president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He co-founded the Civic Platform (PO) party in 2001 and has served as its long-time leader, first from 2003 to 2014 and again since 2021. He was also the president of the European People's Party (EPP) from 2019 to 2022.
Poland has a multi-party political system. On the national level, Poland elects the head of state – the president – and a legislature. There are also various local elections, referendums and elections to the European Parliament.
Presidential elections were held in Poland on 9 October and 23 October 2005. The outgoing President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, had served two five-year terms and was unable to stand for a third term. Lech Kaczyński defeated Donald Tusk to become President of Poland.
The Silesian Autonomy Movement, abbreviated as RAŚ, is a movement officially declaring its support for the autonomy of Silesia as part of a unified Europe. The association was founded in January 1990 by Rudolf Kołodziejczyk and is based in the Polish part of Upper Silesia. RAŚ sees the Silesians as a "separate nation" rather than primarily as Poles, Germans or Czechs.
Marek Tadeusz Kuchciński is a member of the Sejm of Poland, first elected in 2001. Before 2015, he served the parliament as one of the Deputy Marshals of the Sejm, nominated by the Law and Justice club, and also as the Parliamentary Caucus Head of the above-mentioned party. From 2015 to 2019, when his party possessed the majority of seats in both houses, he held the office of Marshal of the Sejm.
Jarosław Adam Gowin is a Polish conservative politician and editor. Gowin served as Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk between 2011 and 2013, and as Minister of Science and Higher Education in the cabinet of Mateusz Morawiecki between 2015 and 2020, Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Technology and Deputy Prime Minister from October 2020 until his dismissal in August 2021.
The 2002 Polish local elections were held in two parts, with the first round on 27 October and the second on 10 November 2002. All 16 provincial voivodeship sejmiks, 314 powiat county councils, 2,748 Gmina municipal councils, and town and city mayors were up for election. The event was the first of its kind to allow direct elections for mayors of municipalities. The local polls followed one year after the decisive victory of the Democratic Left Alliance in the 2001 parliamentary elections, and were seen as a test to the popularity of the Democratic Left Alliance and Polish People's Party coalition government under Prime Minister Leszek Miller.
The 2006 Polish local elections were held in two parts. with its first round on November 12 and the second on November 26, 2006. In the election's first round, voters chose 39,944 gmina councillors, 6,284 powiat councillors and 561 deputies to provincial voivodeship sejmiks. Additionally, 2,460 city and town mayors, borough leaders and other officials were decided by direct or runoff elections in the second round. The elections were seen as a test to the government of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, whose coalition between his own Law and Justice party and its junior coalition partners, the Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland and the League of Polish Families, had undergone a severe crisis two months prior.
Presidential elections were held in Poland on 20 June 2010. As no candidate received a majority of votes in the first round, a second round was held on 4 July 2010. Bronisław Komorowski, the acting President of Poland and vice-chairman of the Civic Platform, defeated Jarosław Kaczyński, twin brother of recently deceased President Lech Kaczyński and chairman of Law and Justice. The global financial crisis, flooding in Poland and the Smolensk disaster were the main themes in the last months of the election campaign.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 21 October 2007, after the Sejm voted for its own dissolution on 7 September. The election took place two years before the maximum tenure of four years, with the previous elections having been in September 2005. The early elections were a result of serious allegations of massive corruption on the part of Andrzej Lepper, leader of the Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland, whose party served as a junior coalition partner to the government of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński. All 460 seats in the Sejm and all 100 seats in the Senate were up for election.
Rafał Piotr Bruski is a Polish politician who is a president of Bydgoszcz, was a Voivode of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (2007-2010) and a former Deputy-President of Bydgoszcz (2006-2007).
Poland Comes First, also rendered as Poland is the Most Important, shortened to Poland First, and abbreviated to PJN, was a centre-right, conservative liberal, political party in Poland. It was formed as a more moderate breakaway group from Law and Justice (PiS). By early 2011, the party had eighteen members of the Sejm, one member of the Senate, and three members of the European Parliament. Poland Comes First ceased to exist as a political party in December 2013, when it joined the new centre-right party led by Jarosław Gowin named Poland Together.
Joanna Grażyna Kluzik-Rostkowska is a Polish politician and member of the Sejm for Civic Platform. She was elected for Law and Justice in 2007, but led a breakaway group in 2010 to form the more liberal Poland Comes First, of which she was leader. She resigned from the party in June 2011, joining Civic Platform following rumors. In November 2013, following a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Kluzik-Rostkowska was appointed to head the Ministry of National Education.
Parliamentary elections to both the Senate and the Sejm were held in Poland on 9 October 2011. The previous election, in 2007, resulted in a Civic Platform–Polish People's Party government. All seats of both Houses were up for re-election.
The 2014 Polish local elections were held in two parts, with its first round on November 16, 2014, and second on November 30, 2014.
The United Right was a parliamentary group formed by Jarosław Gowin and Zbigniew Ziobro with their respective parties, Poland Together and United Poland. After their cooperation at 2015 Polish parliamentary election with the Law and Justice party, 'United Right' became a media label for the ruling right-wing political alliance of Law and Justice with its aforementioned partners in Poland.
The Civic Coalition is a catch-all political alliance currently ruling in Poland. The alliance was formed around Civic Platform in opposition to the then-ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
