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 president of the Council of Ministers, colloquially and commonly referred to as the prime minister, is the head of the cabinet and the head of government of Poland. The responsibilities and traditions of the office stem from the creation of the contemporary Polish state, and the office is defined in the Constitution of Poland. According to the Constitution, the president nominates and appoints the prime minister, who will then propose the composition of the Cabinet. Fourteen days following their appointment, the prime minister must submit a programme outlining the government's agenda to the Sejm, requiring a vote of confidence. Conflicts stemming from both interest and powers have arisen between the offices of President and Prime Minister in the past.
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.
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010. Before his tenure as president, he previously served as President of the Supreme Audit Office from 1992 to 1995 and later Minister of Justice and Public Prosecutor General in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet from 2000 until his dismissal in July 2001.
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.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is a Polish liberal politician and economist. A leading figure of the Gdańsk-based Liberal Democratic Congress in the early 1990s, Bielecki served as Prime Minister of Poland for most of 1991. In his post-political career, Bielecki served as president of Bank Pekao between 2003 and 2010, and served as the president of the Polish Institute of International Affairs between 2009 and 2015. Since the early 2000s, Bielecki has been a member of the Civic Platform party. In 2010, the Warsaw Business Journal described Bielecki as one of the most respected economists in Poland.
Małgorzata Maria Kidawa-Błońska, née Grabska is a Polish politician, film producer, and sociologist currently serving as Marshal of the Senate. She was Marshal of the Sejm from 25 June 2015 to 11 November 2015 at the end of the Seventh term's composition of the lower house, after which being voted a Deputy Marshal of the Eighth and Ninth term, each time nominated by the opposition party Civic Platform, under the marshalcy of Marek Kuchciński and Elżbieta Witek, respectively.
Ewa Bożena Kopacz is a Polish politician who has served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament since 2019. She previously was Marshal of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014, the first woman to hold the office, as well as Prime Minister of Poland from 2014 to 2015. In addition, Kopacz was Minister of Health from 2007 until 2011. Since 2001, she has been a member of Civic Platform, which she chaired from 2014 to 2016. Kopacz succeeded Donald Tusk as prime minister, becoming the second woman to hold the office after Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993). Her term as prime minister ended on 16 November 2015, when she was succeeded by Beata Szydło.
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.
Grzegorz Juliusz Schetyna is a Polish politician who has been Leader of Civic Platform and Leader of the Opposition from 26 January 2016 to 25 January 2020. He has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland from 2014 to 2015, Marshal of the Sejm from 2010 to 2011, Acting President of Poland 2010, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2009 and Minister of the Interior and Administration 2007 to 2009. He has been a Member of the Sejm from 1997.
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.
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.
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.
Jacek Cichocki is a Polish politician and a former member of the Polish Council of Ministers. Cichocki served as the minister of interior in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and later as chief of the Chancellery for Tusk and his successor Ewa Kopacz
Mirosław Sekuła is a Polish chemist and politician. A member of the Sejm between 1997 and 2001 and again between 2007 and 2011, Sekuła also served as President of the Supreme Audit Office between 2001 and 2007, as Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Finance between 2011 and 2013, and as the sixth Marshal of Silesian Voivodeship between 2013 and 2014.
Izabela Dorota Leszczyna is a Polish politician, teacher, local official, Member of the Polish Parliament. She currently serves as Minister of Health.
The 2023 Polish parliamentary election took place on Sunday, 15 October 2023, per the Polish Constitution. Seats in both the lower house, the Sejm, and the Senate were contested. At the polls, a referendum - containing four questions concerning economic and immigration policy of the government - was also voted on.
Presidential elections will be held in Poland by 18 May 2025. They can be held earlier, should the office become vacated as a result of death, resignation or removal from office of the incumbent. Due to constitutional term limits allowing a president to serve only two terms, incumbent president Andrzej Duda is ineligible for re-election. Presidential elections in Poland must take place on a free day between 75 and 100 days before the term's end.
