The Civic Platform is a centre-right liberal conservative 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.
Solidarity Electoral Action was a coalition of political parties in Poland, active from 1996 to 2001. AWS was the political arm of the Solidarity trade union, whose leader Lech Wałęsa, was President of Poland from 1990 to 1995, and the successor of the parties emerged from the fragmentation of the Solidarity Citizens' Committee.
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.
The Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland is a socialist, populist, agrarian, and nationalist political party and trade union in Poland. The party promotes agrarian socialist and Catholic socialist economic policies combined with a left-wing populist, anti-globalization and anti-neoliberal rhetoric. The party describes itself as left-wing, although it stresses that it belongs to the "patriotic left" and follows Catholic social teaching. The party is sympathetic to Communist Poland, which led political scientists to label the party as neocommunist, post-communist, and far-left.
Law and Justice is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński.
The League of Polish Families is a social conservative political party in Poland, with many far-right elements in the past. The party's original ideology was that of the National Democracy movement which was headed by Roman Dmowski, however, in 2006 its leader Roman Giertych distanced himself from that heritage.
The Real Politics Union is a national conservative and economically liberal political party in Poland. In the past it was right-libertarian and classical liberal.
The Conservative People's Party was a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Poland, which was active in 1997–2003 and 2007–2014. In 2014, the party was incorporated into Poland Together.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 25 September 2005. All 460 members of the Sejm and 100 senators of the Senate were elected. The election resulted in a sweeping victory for two opposition parties: the right-wing, national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and the centre-right, liberal-conservative Civic Platform (PO). The incumbent centre-left government of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) was soundly defeated. PiS won 155 seats and PO 133, while the governing SLD was reduced to fourth place with 55 seats, behind Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defence party, which won 56 seats.
The Ancestral Home was a nationalist political association and then a political party in Poland, founded on 3 April 2004 and disbanded on 14 November 2005. Initially founded by Jerzy Robert Nowak as a political association Nationwide Movement for the Defence of Polishness "Dom Ojczysty", it was soon reorganized into a political party, as a splinter of the far-right League of Polish Families (LPR). It was then led by Piotr Krutul, who left LPR together with a few other members of the Sejm. The party was founded to protest the decision of LPR leadership to participate in the 2004 European Parliament election in Poland, which it saw as betrayal of the party's nationalist and anti-EU principles. For the 2005 Polish parliamentary election, the party co-founded the Patriotic Movement as an effort to unite National Catholic groupings, but ultimately decided to run independently. In the 2005 election, it registered electoral lists in half of the electoral districts and won 0.28% of the popular vote and no seats. It dissolved in November 2005.
League and Self-Defense was a short-lived Polish political alliance between the left-wing populist Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona) and the national conservative Christian right League of Polish Families (LPR) in July 2007. The alliance was directed against right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) that first formed a coalition with both parties, but then gradually marginalized them and shuffled away their ministers. The coalition was marked by mutual distrust as the parties had radically different outlooks, tied together by Euroscepticism, opposition to capitalism and aversion to PiS. The coalition was only polling 6%, and was dissolved by September 2007, shortly before the election. In the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, both LPR and Samoobrona failed to reach the 5% electoral threshold, losing all their 92 Sejm and 10 Senate seats. The downfall of both parties is considered to have been caused by PiS appropriating their political rhetoric.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 21 October 2007. All 460 members of the Sejm and 100 senators of the Senate were elected. The largest opposition group, Civic Platform (PO), which soundly defeated the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and its allies. Throughout the campaign, polls showed conflicting results as to which of the two parties had the greater support, yet by the closing week the polls had swung in favour of Civic Platform. Three other political groups won election into the Sejm, the centre-left Left and Democrats coalition, the agrarian Polish People's Party, and the tiny German Minority group. Both of Law and Justice's former minor coalition partners, the League of Polish Families and the Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland suffered an enormous voter backlash, failing to cross the 5% electoral threshold in order to enter the Sejm. Consequently, both parties lost all of their seats.
Patriotic Self-Defence was a minor political party in Poland. The party was founded in September 2006 by former members of the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, who left the party following an argument with the leader of Self-Defence Andrzej Lepper. The party ran in the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, where it tried to take votes from their former party by using a similar name, logo and political program. Ultimately, the party's electoral lists were only accepted in one electoral district. The party won 0.02% of the nationwide vote. It disbanded in 2013.
Polish Social Movement Forward, more usually rendered as Forward Poland was a national-conservative and Eurosceptic political party in Poland. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Polish People's Party "Piast". It was formed mainly by former members of the League of Polish Families (LPR), including its leader Janusz Dobrosz.
The Congress of the New Right is a Eurosceptic political party in Poland. The party was founded on 25 March 2011 by Janusz Korwin-Mikke, from the merger of the Liberty and Lawfulness (WiP) with several members of the Real Politics Union (UPR). The former leader Korwin-Mikke was ousted from the party in 2015, upon revelations that he had fathered 2 children out of wedlock. The party assumed the official name Congress of the New Right on 12 May 2011.
The Polish Coalition is a political alliance in Poland. It is led by the Polish People's Party.
Robert Artur Winnicki is a Polish former politician who served as a member of the Sejm between 2015–2023. He was the head of the National Movement political party between 2015–2023.
People's National Movement was a parliamentary group in the 5th legislature (2005–2007) of Sejm of the Republic of Poland. It was founded on 22 September 2006 by former MPs of Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland and League of Polish Families and was a response to both parties distancing themselves from Law and Justice, which they considered breaking their coalition agreement with. The goal of the People's National Movement was to keep the coalition with Law and Justice at any cost.
