The Sejm, officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the final partition of the Polish state in 1795. The contemporary Senate is composed of 100 senators elected by a universal ballot and is headed by Marshal of the Senate. The incumbent Marshal of the Senate is Tomasz Grodzki.
The Council of State of the Republic of Poland was introduced by the Small Constitution of 1947 as an organ of executive power. The Council of State consisted of the President of the Republic of Poland as chairman, the Marshal and Vice-marshals of the Sejm, President of the Supreme Audit Office, and potential other members. The Council of State had the power to approve decrees issued by the Council of Ministers, exercise supreme control over the local national councils, approve promulgation of laws concerning the budget and military draft, declare a state of emergency and martial law, initiate legislation, and others.
This article discusses the organizational and administrative structure of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Count Stanisław Małachowski, of the Nałęcz coat-of-arms was the first Prime Minister of Poland, a member of the Polish government's Permanent Council (1776–1780), Marshal of the Crown Courts of Justice from 1774, Crown Grand Referendary (1780–1792) and Marshal of the Four-Year Sejm (1788–1792).
Marszałek was one of the highest officials in the Polish royal court since the 13th century and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since the 15th century. He was the oldest-ranking of all court officials and was considered the most important advisor to the King of Poland.
Bronisław Maria Komorowski is a Polish politician and historian who served as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015.
The parliament of Poland is the bicameral legislature of Poland. It is composed of an upper house and a lower house. Both houses are accommodated in the Sejm complex in Warsaw. The Constitution of Poland does not refer to the Parliament as a body, but only to the Sejm and Senate.
The Crown Tribunal was the highest appellate court in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland for most cases. Exceptions were if a noble landowner was threatened with loss of life and/or property, when he could appeal to the Sejm court.
Bogdan Michał Borusewicz was the Marshal in the Polish Senate from 20 October 2005 to 11 November 2015. Borusewicz was a democratic opposition activist under the Communist regime, a member of the Polish parliament (Sejm) for three terms and first Senate Marshal to serve two terms in this office. He was Acting President of Poland for a few hours in 2010.
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.
Grodno Sejm was the last Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grodno Sejm, held in autumn 1793 in Grodno, Grand Duchy of Lithuania is infamous because its deputies, bribed or coerced by the Russian Empire, passed the act of Second Partition of Poland. The Sejm started on 17 June and ended on 23 November 1793. It ratified the division of the country in a futile attempt to prevent its subsequent complete annexation two years later in the 1795 Third Partition of Poland.
The Senior Marshal is an honorary post in Sejm given to one of the oldest members of the body. He is nominated by the President of Poland and functions as Marshal of the Sejm until that holder of office is elected by the newly elected Sejm and Senate. Election of the marshal of the Sejm is usually the first item on the agenda for the new Sejm.
Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland is a person elected to preside over Sejm sessions when the Sejm Marshal is not presiding. Throughout the course of the Third Republic, there have always been several Deputy marshals, usually elected from some or all of the various parliamentary caucuses, rather than from the Government majority.
The Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland is the presiding officer of the Senate of Poland. The marshal is also third person according to the Polish order of precedence, after President of the Republic of Poland and Sejm Marshal, and second in line to become Acting President of the Republic of Poland. Because of both precedence order and succession order, the marshal is commonly referred to as the "third person in state". The person who functions as their second-in-command is the Deputy Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland.
The Diet of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and of the Grand Duchy of Cracow was the regional assembly of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crown land of the Austrian Empire, and later Austria-Hungary. In the history of the Polish parliaments, it is considered the successor of the former sejm walny, or general sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and also of the sejmik, or local councils, in the territories of the Austrian Partition. It existed from 1861 until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918.
The House of Badeni is the name of a Polish aristocratic family. The dynasty became important in the 19th century in partitioned Poland as one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Galicia.
Sejm of Central Lithuania, also known as the Vilnius Sejm, or Wilno Sejm or the Adjudicating Sejm, was the parliament of the short-lived state of Central Lithuania. Formed after the elections of 8 January 1922, it held its proceedings from 1 February to 1 March of that year. It had 106 deputies. Dominated by Polish representatives, it requested Central Lithuania's annexation by Poland and dissolved shortly afterward.
