Democratic Left Alliance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
|
|
|---|---|
|
Democratic Left Alliance
|
|
|
|
|
| Leader | Grzegorz Napieralski |
|
|
|
| Founded | 15 April 1999 |
| Headquarters | ul. Rozbrat 44 A, 00-419 Warsaw |
|
|
|
| Ideology | Social democracy |
| International affiliation | Socialist International, Party of European Socialists |
|
|
|
| Website www.sld.org.pl |
|
Democratic Left Alliance (Polish: Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD) is a Polish social-democratic political party. A coalition of left-wing parties used this name from 1991 to 1999. It was formally established as a single party on April 15, 1999. In late 2006, it joined the Left and Democrats, an alliance of centre-left social liberal parties.
[edit] History
In 1999 the coalition became a party, but lost some members. Most of the members who established the party in 1999 had previously been members of Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (SdRP). SdRP and some other socialist and social democratic parties had formed the original Alliance of the Democratic Left as a left-wing coalition just prior to the nation's first free elections in 1991.
At the time, the coalition's membership drew mostly from the Polish communist, the Polish United Workers Party, which ruled the People's Republic of Poland with Soviet support before 1989. The coalition was formed also thanks to a financial aid from Soviet Union.[citation needed] An alliance between the SLD and the Polish Peasant Party ruled Poland in the years 1993–1997, however the coalition was defeated by the right-wing liberal Solidarity Electoral Action in the 1997 election.
SLD formed a coalition with Labour Union (UP) before the 2001 election and won it overwhelmingly at last by capturing about 5.3 million votes, 42% of the whole and won 200 of 460 seats in the Sejm and 75 of 100 in the Senate. After the elections, the coalition was joined by Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe in forming a government and Leszek Miller became the prime minister. In March 2003 PSL left the coalition. By 2004 the support for SLD in the polls had dropped from about 30% to just below 10%, and several high ranking party members had been accused of taking part in high profile political scandals by the mainstream press (most notably the Rywin affair).
On March 6, 2004 Leszek Miller resigned as party leader and was replaced by Krzysztof Janik. On March 26 the Diet speaker Marek Borowski, together with other high-ranking SLD officials, announced the creation of a new left-wing party, the Polish Social Democrats (Socjaldemokracja Polska). On the next day, Leszek Miller announced he would step down as prime minister on May 2, the day after Poland joins the European Union. He proceeded to do so.
In the 2004 European Parliament election, it only received 9% of the votes, giving it 5 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament, as part of the Party of European Socialists.
Wojciech Olejniczak, the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was elected the president of SLD on May 29, succeeded Józef Oleksy, who resigned from the post of prime minister due to alleged connections to the KGB. However it could not avoid from suffering a huge defeat in the 2005 parliamentary election, SLD only won 11.3% of the vote. This gave the party 55 seats, barely a quarter of what it had had prior to the election. It had also lost all of its Senators. In late 2006 a social liberal alliance, Left and Democrats, was created, comprising SLD and some smaller left-wing and center parties. The coalition won disappointing 13% and was dissolved soon after. On May 31, 2008 Olejniczak was replaced by Grzegorz Napieralski as the SLD leader.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- "By invitation" - article about freedom of press in Poland and changing the name of PZPR to SLD - as a way of escape from danger of delegalization of a regime party. 5 April 1998.
- The Warsaw Voice Article. 24 November 2004.
