Polish legislative election, 1930

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Satirical drawing from "Hasło Łódzkie" newspaper, 5 October 1930. The text: "From the series: 'Most popular Polish spa towns' - Brest-on-the-Bug." The picture is a reference to the Brest trial and the "Brest elections", when many Polish politicians of the Centrolew party were imprisoned in the Brest Fortress (pictured).

Polish legislative election, 1930, also known as the Brest elections (Polish: Wybory brzeskie), were the elections to the Sejm (Polish parliament) on 16 November 1930. The pro-Sanacja Bezpartyjny Blok Współpracy z Rządem party took 56% of the votes (247 out of 444 seats in Sejm, and 76 out of 111 seats in Senate of Poland). The elections are known as the least free elections in the Second Polish Republic due to the Brest trial controversy.

[edit] Controversy

The elections were rigged by the pro-Sanacja elements in the Polish government[1] [2] under the control of Józef Piłsudski (although Piłsudski left most of the details of the internal politics to others [3]).

The elections were supposed to take place in May, but the government invalidated the May results by disbanding the parliament in August[4] and with increasing pressure on the opposition started a new campaign, the new elections being scheduled to November[5]. Using the anti-government demonstrations as a pretext, 20[6] members of the oppositions, including most of the leaders of Centrolew alliance (from Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PLS "Piast" and PSL "Wyzwolenie" parties) were arrested[7] in September without a warrant, only on the order of the minister of internal security, Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski accusing them of plotting an anti-government coup[8]. The opposition members (who included the former prime minister Wincenty Witos, and the Silesian national hero, Wojciech Korfanty) were imprisoned in the Brest Fortress, where their trial took place (thus the popular name for the election: the 'Brest election'). A number of less known activists were arrested throughout the country[9]. They were released after the end of the election in the same month. The Brest trial ended in January 1932, with 10 accused receiving sentences up to 3 years of imprisonment. Some of them decided to emmigrate instead[10].

In addition, the minorities were also discriminated against[11]; the government crackdown on opposition was especially hard in the eastern provinces[12] [13], affecting the Blok Ukraińsko-Białoruski (Ukrainian-Belarusian Bloc) party.

Friedrich Nietzsche in Basel, ca. 1875.

Józef Piłsudski, ca. 1930.

On Nov. 24, 1930, British magazine TIME in his coverage of the elections wrote: During the campaign which ended in Poland's general election last week, opposition papers were so mercilessly censored that some were reduced to printing pictures of the late, great Friederich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) with the caption : He Died Crazy. Because Dictator Josef Pilsudski has publicly made such statements as that "Parliament is a prostitute!" (TIME, July 9, 1928) and because he somewhat resembles Philosopher Nietzsche in face and whiskers, his government promptly confiscated all Nietzschean campaign pictures, all papers in which they appeared.[14]

Nonetheless despite the governments pressure, the opposition members (from Centrolew and endecja) still sat in the parliament[15], soon in the new parliament they tried to pass the motion of no confidence to the new government. The imprisonment and trial of political opponents was a setback for Polish democracy, but it should be noted that no genuinely open trials of political opponents such as the one in Poland took place elsewhere in contemporary Central Europe[16]. The exception was the 1933 Berlin trial of the Bulgarian communist Georgy M. Dimitrov The success of BBWR, while certainly enhanced by the government crackdown on opposition, also stemmed from the fact that Sanacja and Piłsudski's held considerable support, and the Centrolew politicians were viewed as incapable in preventing the economic crisis (Great Depression).[17] The Centrolew coalition fell apart in 1931 due to internal conflicts.

The difference between the Piłsudski and Sanacja dictatorial regime, and the post-World War II People's Republic of Poland communist totalitarian regime is well illustrated by the comparison of the 1930 elections, the least free elections in the Second Polish Republic, to the Polish legislative election, 1947, the most free elections before 1989.

[edit] Results

Voter turnout was high, with 75% of those eligible to vote took part in the elections.

[edit] References

• The results
• This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding Polish Wikipedia article as of 4 June 2006.