Libertas Poland

Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP) is a political party in Poland. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Libertas Party Limited, the organization founded by Declan Ganley.

Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci

Before the Polish parliamentary election, 2007, three LPR then-members, Cyprian Gutkowski, Daniel Pawłowiec and Sebastian Jargut, registered a party called Lewica i Demokraci, (Left and Democrats).^[5] The party was a party-in-name-only designed to frustrate^[5] the party of the same name, which was forced to register itself as SLD+SdPl+PD+UP – Lewica i Demokraci (LiD) instead.^[5]

Declan Ganley visited^[8][9] Poland on Friday 9 January 2009^[10] to discuss terms for the formation of the Poland branch of Libertas with representatives from Forward Poland (NP), PSL Piast and Prawica Rzeczypospolitej (PR).^[10] Ganley insisted that the Poland Libertas party used the word "Libertas" in the title but the party politicians were concerned that the non-Polish name would deter voters.^[10] The name "Forward Poland - Libertas" (Naprzód Polsko – Libertas) was suggested as a compromise name^[10] should NP decide to ally with Libertas.

On February 1, 2009,^[11] Ganley spoke to the inaugural Warsaw meeting of the Referendum Committee (Komitetu Referendalnego), an organization advocating that referendums be held prior to treaty ratifications by Poland.^[11][12] The speech was filmed and placed on YouTube (prolog, part 1, part 2). The meeting attendance was estimated at 700^[12] or 500^[11] and attendees included^[11][13] Mirosław Orzechowski (LPR), Zdzisław Podkański (PSL), Krzysztof Filipek and Danuta Hojarska (once Samoobrona, now Party of Regions) and Antoni Tyszka (UPR), Konrad Bonisławski (head of All-Polish Youth) and Krzysztof Bosak (former LPR MP).

On February 2, 2009^[6][11] a press conference was given^[7] in which the head of the Referendum Committee, former LPR MP Daniel Pawłowiec, was named as head^[1][2][7] of Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP), and the Referendum Committee offices at Aleje Ujazdowskie 22/3, 00-478 Warsaw were named as the headquarters of Libertas Poland.^[7]

Although the party had been announced, it did not exist under that name at that point: registering a political party in Poland is a lengthy process.^[5] Instead, Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci was renamed to Libertas Polska, the new name being registered on 24 February 2009^[5]

Position

On 11 February 2009, Libertas Poland held a press conference concerning the emergency meeting of the European Council.^[14] In that press conference, Libertas Poland demanded that the Polish government should reduce VAT following the UK example,^[14] propose an EU joint energy policy,^[14] and reopen the labor markets of Germany and Austria to Polish workers.^[14]

Affiliates

Libertas attempted to get other parties to affiliate (run candidates under a common list) to it. Libertas's search for affiliates was assisted by Roman Giertych^[15] and Wojciech Wierzejski,^[16] with Wierzejski resigning from the leadership of LPR to devote his time to the unification of the Polish patriotic, nationalist, conservative and Christian right under a Libertas list.^[17]

Parties that did affiliate to Libertas

The parties that affiliated with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu are as follows:

• Forward Poland and PSL Piast

Forward Poland (Naprzód Polsko, NP) originally rejected^[18] cooperation with Libertas because they felt that Libertas did not reflect their desire for a more independent Poland.^[18] PSL Piast (a.k.a. Stronnictwo "Piast") also initially rejected^[18][19] cooperation with Libertas for similar reasons to Forward Poland^[18] and because the party did not have a Polish name.^[19] Instead, the two parties planned to run their own combined list (Naprzód Polsko - Piast) in the 2009 elections.^[20]

But the two parties eventually decided to affiliate to Libertas^[21] and candidates from the two parties appeared on the Libertas lists.^[22] The decision to affiliate was not unanimously welcomed within the two parties.^[15]

There was a controversy involving allegations of forged signatures in constituency number 11^[23] and the Naprzód Polsko - Piast list did field candidates in that constituency.^[20]

• Partia Regionów

Partia Regionów considered running under a Libertas list.^[19] Partia Regionów's president, Bolesław Borysiuk, negotiated cooperation with Libertas Polska^[24] and he announced in PR's inaugural Congress that PR's candidates were likely to run under a Libertas list alongside Libertas Polska,^[25] and this did in fact occur.^[22]

• League of Polish Families

As of 9 March 2009, League of Polish Families (LPR) were still considering whether to run under a Libertas list or form their own, either by themselves or with UPR, or Prawica Rzeczypospolitej.<ref ="GP118029">"LPR coraz bliżej podjęcia decyzji, z kim do eurowyborów" (English translation). gazetaprawna.pl. 9 March 2009. </ref> But by 19 March, Ganley was distancing Libertas from LPR.^[26] Nevertheless, Libertas and LPR were still in ongoing discussions on Friday 27 March 2009^[27] about running under a common list. By 21 April 2009, LPR had agreed to affiliate to Libertas^[21] and their candidates did run under the Libertas list^[22][28] instead of their own list^[29] in the 2009 European Parliament elections.

• Organizacja Narodu Polskiego – Liga Polska

Organizacja Narodu Polskiego – Liga Polska affiliated to Libertas.^[30][31][32]

• Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe

Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe (ZChN) affiliated to Libertas.^[30][31][33]

Parties that did not affiliate to Libertas

The parties that considered affiliating with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu, but did not, are as follows:

• Prawica Rzeczypospolitej

Prawica Rzeczypospolitej considered Libertas to have Eurofederalist aspects and rejected Libertas accordingly.^[34] No Prawica Rzeczypospolitej candidates appeared on the Libertas list in the 2009 European Parliament elections.^[22]

• Law and Justice

Law and Justice (PiS) personnel^[3] were mentioned by Pawłowiec as possible Libertas candidates, although no names were given.^[3] Libertas tried to get PiS to affiliate to it^[35] but it did not do so,^[36] and instead ran a full list of its own,^[37] although one of its members (Slawomir Ligecki^[38]) did defect to Libertas.

Personnel

TVP controversy

On 20 March 2009, journalist Hanna Lis refused to do a TVP interview with Declan Ganley.^[39] Controversy promptly arose revolving around LPR's Roman Giertych^[39] and whether LPR were encouraging coverage of Libertas on TVP^[39] via Piotr Farfał the President of TVP^[40] and a member of LPR.^[39] Hanna Lis,^[41] Piotr Kraśko,^[41] and Jarosław Kulczycki,^[41] the three presenters of a nightly news program, took sick leave in protest, forcing the news to be presented by Marcin Szczepański.^[41]

European Parliament elections, 2009

Libertas Poland started work on/before 20 March 2009 on collecting sufficient signatures to field candidates,^[3][4] although the number and names of those candidates was not specified.^[3][4] By 2 May 2008, a Libertas Election Committee (Komitet Wyborczy Libertas) had been formed and its list consisted of 130^[30] candidates, later falling to 128.^[22] The breakdown was as follows:^[30]

Results

See also

• Jens-Peter Bonde
• Declan Ganley
• European Parliament election, 2009
• Treaty of Lisbon

References