Politics of Poland
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The politics of Poland take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Sejm and the Senate. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Executive power is exercised by the government, which consists of a council of ministers led by the Prime Minister. Its members are typically chosen from a majority coalition in the lower house of parliament (the Sejm), although exceptions to this rule are not uncommon. The government is formally announced by the president, and must pass a motion of confidence in the Sejm within two weeks.
Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, Sejm and Senate. Members of parliament are elected by proportional representation, with the proviso that non-ethnic-minority parties must gain at least 5% of the national vote to enter the lower house. Currently four parties are represented. Parliamentary elections occur at least every four years.
The president, as the head of state, has the power to veto legislation passed by parliament, but otherwise has a mostly representative role. Presidential elections occur every 5 years.
The political system is defined in the Polish Constitution, which also guarantees a wide range of individual freedoms.
The judicial branch plays a minor role in politics, apart from the Constitutional Tribunal, which can annul laws that violate the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution.
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Recent developments (since 2000)
In the presidential election of 2000, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the incumbent former leader of the post-communist SLD, was re-elected in the first round of voting, with 53.9% of the popular vote. Second place, with only 17.3%, went to Andrzej Olechowski. It is thought that the opposition campaign was hindered by their inability to put forward a charismatic (or even a single major) candidate, as well as falling support for the centre-right AWS government. This was related to internal friction in the ruling parliamentary coalition.
The 1997 Constitution and the changed administrative divisions of 1999 required a revision of the electoral system, which was passed in April 2001. The most important changes were: 1) the final liquidation of the party list (previously, some of the members of parliament were elected from a party list, based on nationwide voter support, rather than from local constituencies), and 2) modification of the method of allocating seats to the Sainte-Laguë method, which gave less premium to large parties. The latter change was reverted back to the d'Hondt method in 2002.
The September 2001 parliamentary elections saw the SLD triumph on the back of voter dissolusionment with the AWS government and internal bickering within that bloc. So much so that this former ruling party did not enter parliament, falling below the 8% threshold for coalitions (they had failed to form a formal political party, which has only a 5% threshold, and formally remained a "coalition" of parties).
The SLD went on to form a coalition with the agrarian PSL and leftist UP, with Leszek Miller as Prime Minister.
A leading issue in the subsequent years was negotiations with the European Union regarding accession and internal preparation for this. Poland joined the EU in May 2004. Both President Kwaśniewski and the government were vocal in their support for this cause. The only party decidedly opposed to EU entry was the populist right-wing League of Polish Families (LPR).
Despite broad popular support for joining the EU, which was considered an overriding issue, the government rapidly lost popularity due to incompetence on various issues (e.g. building of motorways, and a botched reform of the health system), a general economic slump, and numerous corruption scandals. The most famous of these were the Rywin affair (an alleged attempt to interfere with the legislative process, so named after the main suspect Lew Rywin) -- this case was investigated by a special parliamentary committee, whose proceedings were televised and widely followed), and the Starachowice affair (government ministers informed friends with links to organised crime about an impending raid).
In March some prominent SLD politicians and MPs (including the then Speaker of the Sejm: Marek Borowski) split from the party, creating the new Socjaldemokracja Polska party (SDPL). The cabinet led by Leszek Miller resigned on May 2, 2004, just after Poland's admission to the European Union.
A new cabinet was formed, with Marek Belka as prime minister. After two initial unsuccessful attempts, it eventually won parliamentary support (24 June) and governed until the parliamentary elections in late 2005. Several of the new ministers were seen as non-partisan experts, and the government was considered a marked improvement upon the previous cabinet. This did not carry over into any rise in voter support for the SLD, however, despite an economic upturn through 2005. The SLD saw its support drop by three-fourths to only 11% in the subsequent elections.
In the autumn of 2005 Poles voted in both parliamentary and presidential elections. September's parliamentary poll was expected to produce a coalition of two centre-right parties, Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) and Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO). PiS eventually gained 27% of votes cast and became the largest party in the sejm ahead of PO on 24%. The out-going ruling party, the left-wing Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD), achieved just 11%. Presidential elections in October followed a similar script. The early favourite, Donald Tusk, leader of the PO, saw his opinion poll lead slip away and was beaten 54% to 46% in the second round by the PiS candidate Lech Kaczyński (one of the twins, founders of the party). Both elections were blighted by low turn-outs—only 51% in the second and deciding round of the presidential election, and just over 40% in the parliamentary election. The suggested cause of the low turnout is popular disillusionment with politicians.
Coalition talks ensued simultaneously with the presidential elections. However, the severity of the campaign attacks and the willingness of PiS to court the populist vote had soured the relationship between the two largest parties and made the creation of a stable coalition impossible. The ostensible stumbling blocks were the insistence of PiS that it control all aspects of law enforcement: the Ministries of Justice and Internal Affairs, and the special forces; as well as the forcing through of a PiS candidate for the head of the Sejm with help of several smaller populist parties. The PO decided to go into opposition.
PiS then formed a minority government with the previously little-known Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz as Prime Minister instead of party leader, Jarosław Kaczyński who remained influential in the background. This government relied on the tacit and rather stable support of smaller populist and agrarian parties (PSL, Samoobrona, LPR) to govern.
The new government initially enjoyed strong public support while the popularity of the populist parties giving it support waned. Against this background, a parliamentary crisis appeared to loom in January 2006, with these small populist parties fearing that PiS was about to force new elections (on which they would lose out) by using the pretext of failing to pass the budget within the constitutional timeframe. In July 2006, following a rift with his party leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, Marcinkiewicz tendered his resignation as Prime Minister and was replaced by Kaczyński, who formed a new government.
The following 15 months were erratic and not without controversy, as the government pursued lustration policies, established a Central Anticorruption Bureau with far reaching powers and was embroiled in a case relating to the suicide of an M.P who was under investigation for corruption. The new government also modified Polands foreign relations relating to the EU by adopting a more eurosceptical stance, where Polish governments had in the past adopted a very pro-EU position. The uneasy alliance between the three coalition partners came to a head in July 2007 when Samoobrona leader, Andrzej Lepper, was dismissed from his position as Minister for Agriculture following a secret investigation by the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) which attempted to link him and his department to corruptive practices. Lepper protested his innocence and claimed to have been the victim of a politically motivated 'sting' operation, initiated by PM Kaczynski and PiS. The coalition agreement collapsed over the following month, with both the LPR and Samoobrona levelling accusations against PiS. In September, the Sejm voted to dissolve itself (supported by PiS, but opposed by Samoobrona and LPR), paving the way for elections in October.
The October parliamentary elections saw a stunning victory for the Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party, which gained more than 41% of the popular vote. PiS's vote increased, from 2005, but insufficiently to gain reelection, whilst both Samoobrona and LPR were wiped out, losing all representation, each having gained only a little over 1% of the vote. PO proceeded to form a majority governing coalition with the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL), with PO leader, Donald Tusk, taking over the prime ministerial office in November, 2007.
On 10 April 2010, several members of the political elite were killed in an air crash outside of Pechyrsk, Smolensk Oblast, Russia, including
- Lech Kaczyński, the President of Poland
- Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last President of the Polish government-in-exile
- Jerzy Szmajdziński, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm
- Władysław Stasiak, Chief of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
- Aleksander Szczygło, head of the National Security Bureau
- Paweł Wypych, Secretary of State in the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
- Mariusz Handzlik, Undersecretary of State in the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
- Andrzej Kremer, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Krystyna Bochenek, Deputy Speaker of the Senat
- Stanisław Zając, member of the Senat
- and 15 members of the Sejm
See Category:Polish politicians
National security
Poland's top national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and other west European defense, economic, and political institutions via a modernization and reorganization of its military. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defense nature as its NATO partners.
The combined [1] consists of 100,300[2] active duty personnel and in addition 234,000 reserves. In 2009 the Armed Forces transformed into a fully professional organization and compulsory military service was abolished. Personnel levels and organization in the different branches are as follows (2004):
- Land Forces: 60,000 (4 divisions, independent units and territorial forces)
- Air Force: 26,000 (Air and Air Defense Corps)
- Navy: 14,300 (2 Fleets)
- Special Forces: 1,700 (4 Special Units - GROM, 1 PSK, "Formoza", special logistics Military Unit)
The Polish military continues to restructure and to modernize its equipment. The Polish Defense Ministry General Staff and the Land Forces staff have recently reorganized the latter into a NATO-compatible J/G-1 through J/G-6 structure. Budget constraints hamper such priority defense acquisitions as a multi-role fighter, improved communications systems, and an attack helicopter.
Poland continues to be a regional leader in support and participation in the NATO Partnership for Peace Program and has actively engaged most of its neighbors and other regional actors to build stable foundations for future European security arrangements. Poland continues its long record of strong support for UN Peacekeeping Operations by maintaining a unit in Southern Lebanon, a battalion in NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR), and by providing and actually deploying the KFOR strategic reserve to Kosovo. Poland is a strong ally of the US in Europe and leads the Multinational Division Central South in Iraq.
Biuro Ochrony Rządu
The Biuro Ochrony Rządu (BOR), or Government Protection Bureau, is Poland's equivalent of the Secret Service in the United States- providing antiterrorism and VIP security detail services for the government.[3]
Administrative divisions
Poland is divided in 16 provinces or Voivodeships (województwa, singular - województwo); Lower Silesia, Kuyavia-Pomerania, Łódź, Lubelskie, Lubusz, Lesser Poland, Masovia, Opole, Subcarpathia, Podlaskie, Pomerania, Silesia, Świętokrzyskie, Warmia-Masuria, Greater Poland, and West Pomerania.
See also
- Political parties in Poland
- Liberalism in Poland
- Far right in Poland
- Anarchism in Poland
References
- ↑ Polish Armed Forces
- ↑ Polish Military personnel
- ↑ Biuro Ochrony Rządu retrieved 2007-07-25
External links
- Poland Now Led by Twin Brothers
- Erik Herron's Guide to Politics of East Central Europe and Eurasia
- PGB surveys
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