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.
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.
Jan Ferdynand Olszewski was a Polish conservative lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Poland for five months between December 1991 and early June 1992 and later became a leading figure of the conservative Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland.
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.
Waldemar Pawlak is a Polish politician. He has twice served as Prime Minister of Poland, briefly in 1992 and again from 1993 to 1995. From November 2007 to November 2012 he served as Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy. Pawlak remains Poland's youngest prime minister to date.
The Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms was an officially nonpartisan organization affiliated with Lech Wałęsa. The party was established in 1993, and became part of Solidarity Electoral Action in 1997.
The Centre Agreement was a Christian-democratic political party in Poland. It was established in 1990 and had its roots in the Solidarity trade union and its political arm, the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Its main leader was Jarosław Kaczyński. The party was initially the party of choice of Polish president Lech Wałęsa and heavily cooperated with him and his environment between 1990 and 1992, leading the first post-communist governments. In 1991, Jan Olszewski from Centre Agreement gained the support of Wałęsa for his candidacy for Prime Minister, forming a PC-led government. However, the government was mired with internal conflicts in 1992 and fell to a vote of no confidence. Afterwards, the party was increasingly marginalized and became a part of Solidarity Electoral Action in 1997. In 1999, the bigger faction of the party left to the newly created Polish Christian Democratic Agreement; further, in 2001, the leadership of the party dissolved Centre Agreement to found Law and Justice, the direct successor of the party. However, it wouldn't be until a year later that it would dissolve.
The Christian National Union was a Christian-democratic and nationalist political party in Poland. Established on 15 September 1989, the party traced its tradition to the Solidarity movement, as well as pre-World War II National Democracy and Polish Christian Democratic Party. The party adhered to the Christian right, advocating social conservatism. From its foundation until 1994, the party was led by Wiesław Chrzanowski, who was Marshal of the Sejm in 1991–1993.
The Senate 2001 bloc was an electoral alliance in Poland used by centre-right parties in the election to the Senate in 2001. It included post-Solidarity Electoral Action parties, who aimed to prevent domination of the Senate by the centre-left Democratic Left Alliance – Labor Union (SLD-UP). All of the component parties competed in the concurrent election to the Sejm separately.
The Polish People's Party – Peasants' Agreement, commonly known simply as Peasants' Agreement (PL), was an agrarian and Christian-democratic political party in Poland.
Cabinet of Jan Olszewski was the government of Poland from 23 December 1991 to 5 June 1992, sitting in the Council of Ministers during the 1st legislature of the Sejm. Led by lawyer Jan Olszewski, it was supported by the coalition of the Centre Agreement and the Christian National Union as well as the Party of Christian Democrats in the beginning and the Peasants' Agreement at the end.
The Movement for the Republic was a Christian-democratic political party in Poland. The party was founded by former members of centrist Centre Agreement who protested the downfall of Jan Olszewski and his cabinet from power. The party aspired to become the leading Christian-democratic party in Poland and contested the 1993 Polish parliamentary election, but it gained no seats as it failed to cross the 5% electoral threshold. The party was also mired by several splits and internal conflicts, which results in the party disintegrating into several smaller parties and formations. In 1995, Movement for Reconstruction of Poland founded by the party's first leader Jan Olszewski, absorbed most members of the party. The RdR dissolved in 1999.
The Coalition for the Republic was a Christian-democratic electoral alliance in Poland. It consisted of several parties - the Movement for the Republic (RdR), Solidarność 80, National Christian Movement "Polish Action", Freedom Party (PW), Upper Silesian Christian Democracy (GChD), Party of Polish Democracy (SDP), Polish People's Christian Forum "Fatherland" ("Ojcowizna") and the Patriotic Forum of Fighting Poland.
The Centre Agreement – Polish Union was a Christian-democratic electoral alliance in Poland. It united the Centre Agreement (PC), Third Republic Movement (RTR), Christian-Democratic Labour Faction (ChDSP), Party of Fidelity to the Republic (SWR-KSN) and Regional Agreement RdR.
The Third Republic Movement was a minor conservative political party in Poland functioning between 1992 and 1995, when it united with the Movement for the Republic to form the Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland.
The Centre Agreement – Integrative Initiative was a Christian-democratic political party in Poland. It was founded by the former secretary and member of the executive board of Centre Agreement (PC) Wojciech Dobrzyński, who was stripped of his functions on 5 October 1994, and then expelled from the party by Jarosław Kaczyński in January 1995. Kaczyński expelled Dobrzyński over his willigness to cooperate with the right-wing Christian National Union, a party that wanted to create an All-Polish electoral alliance that would unite all right-leaning parties in Poland but exclude the PC.
The Movement for the Republic – Patriotic Camp was a political party in Poland. It was a party that split from the Movement for the Republic (RdR), with the split being caused by differences of opinion in regards to the party's position and possible cooperation with the President Lech Wałęsa. The RdR–OP was led by Romuald Szeremietiew who supported cooperation with the President, and was narrowly elected the leader of RdR in 1993. However, the party leadership annulled the results of the election, and elected Olszewski in the name of Szeremietiew, prompting the split. The party was a right-leaning movement and was strongly supportive of not only the President Lech Wałęsa, but also the efforts to form a united centre-right front against the post-communist left in Poland.
The Alternative Social Movement was coalition of Polish political parties formed on 18 March 2001 in Warsaw for the 2001 Polish parliamentary election. The grouping was formed from a merger of Confederation of Independent Poland - Patriotic Camp led by Michał Janiszewski, Tomasz Karwowski, and Janina Kraus, together with a group of politicians originating from the Christian National Union (ZChN), including Henryk Goryszewski and Mariusz Olszewski. The coalition was also joined by the Free Trade Union 'August 80' Confederation, led by Daniel Podrzycki and Bogusław Ziętek. The Alternative Social Movement was registered as a political party, and its members mainly became the activists of August 80.
The Homeland Patriotic Movement was a right-wing electoral coalition created for the 1998 Polish local elections. It was a coalition of numerous right-wing formations as well as an environmentalist party and left-wing trade unions, and sought to present a right-wing alternative to the centre-right Christian-democratic Solidarity Electoral Action. The founding parties of the coalition were a part of the Solidarity Electoral Action in the 1997 Polish parliamentary election, but left it over political and ideological disagreements. The main party in the coalition was the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms, renamed to Bloc for Poland. Despite running an aggressive and dynamic campaign, the coalition finished 6th and won 3.19% of the popular vote, winning 256 council seats in total, including 2 out of 855 seats in the voivodeship sejmiks. The coalition dissolved shortly after the election, but its members continued their cooperation, founding the Alternative Social Movement for the 2001 Polish parliamentary election.
