Democratic Union (Poland)

Democratic Union Unia Demokratyczna
Chairman	Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Founded	December 2, 1990 (parliamentary group) May 12, 1991 (party)
Dissolved	April 23, 1994 (1994-04-23)
Merger of	Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action Forum of the Democratic Right
Split from	Solidarity Citizens' Committee
Merged into	Freedom Union
Ideology	Market liberalism [1]
Political position	Centre-right [1]
Politics of Poland Political parties Elections

The Democratic Union (Polish : Unia Demokratyczna) was a market liberal party in Poland. The party was founded in 1991 by Prime Minister, Christian Democrat Tadeusz Mazowiecki as a merger of the Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action (Ruch Obywatelski Akcja Demokratyczna) and the Forum of Right Democrats (Forum Prawicy Demokratycznej).

Timeline of Polish liberal parties after 1989

• Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action /ROAD (1990–1991) • Liberal Democratic Congress /KLD (1990–1994) • Democratic Union /UD (1991–1994) • Freedom Union /UW (1994–2005) • Civic Platform (2001- ) • Democratic Party /PD (2005–2016) • Palikot's Movement /RP (2011–2013) • Your Movement /TR (2013–2023) • Modern/.N (2015– ) • Poland 2050 (2020- )

The party presented a staunchly market-liberal platform, and was described as socioeconomically and socioculturally right-wing. ^[1] Important members were Bronisław Geremek, Jacek Kuroń, Adam Michnik, Hanna Suchocka, Jan Rokita and Aleksander Hall.

In 1994, the party merged with the Liberal Democratic Congress into the Freedom Union (Unia Wolności).

Election results

Sejm

Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
1991	1,382,051	12.32 (#1)	62 / 460	13 [2]	PC–ZChN–PSL-PL–SLCh (1991–1992)
					UD–ZChN–PChD–KLD–PSL-PL–SLCh–PPPP (1992–1993)
1993	1,460,957	10.59 (#3)	74 / 460	12	SLD–PSL

Senate

Election year	Seats	+/–	Government
1991	21 / 100		PC–ZChN–PSL-PL–SLCh (1991–1992)
			UD–ZChN–PChD–KLD–PSL-PL–SLCh–PPPP (1992–1993)
1993	4 / 100	17	SLD–PSL

See also

• Christian democracy

References

1. Lindner, Attila; Novokmet, Filip; Piketty, Thomas; Zawisza, Tomasz (2020). "Political conflict, social inequality and electoral cleavages in Central-Eastern Europe, 1990-2018". Working Paper (25). World Inequality Lab: 8–9. Meanwhile, on the right, there was an absence of programmatic clarity on economic issues among most other post-Solidarity parties, and the Democratic Union (UD, later the Freedom Union, UW), was the only party with a consistent market-liberal platform. At the same time, for the other parties on the right, the socio-cultural and the cleavage with ex-communists were central.
2. "Posłowie X kadencji (Members of the X Sejm)". Sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 8 January 2015.