List of political parties in Poland

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This article lists current political parties in Poland, as well as former parties dating back as far as 1918. Since 1989, Poland has had a multi-party system, with numerous competing political parties. Individual parties normally do not manage to gain power alone, and usually work with other parties to form coalition governments.

Parliamentary parties

Figures in parentheses reflect initial number of seats won by party (if different from current number), prior to splits, defections, etc.

Party   Members in Political Position
Name Abbr. Web Leader Sejm Senate EP Ideology
Civic Platform
Platforma Obywatelska		 PO Ewa Kopacz 203
(207) 		62
(63) 		25 Centre-right – Liberal conservatism,[1] Christian democracy,[1] Strong Pro-Europeanism
Law and Justice
Prawo i Sprawiedliwość		 PiS Jarosław Kaczyński 136
(157) 		30
(31) 		7
(15)		 Right-wing – National conservatism,[1] Social conservatism,[1] Soft Euroscepticism
Your Movement
Twój Ruch		 TR Janusz Palikot 36
(40) 		0

 1
(0)		 Centre-left – Liberalism,[1] Anti-clericalism,[1] Radicalism, Pro-Europeanism
Polish People's Party
Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe		 PSL Janusz Piechociński 32
(28) 		2 4
(3)		 Centre-right – Agrarianism,[1] Christian democracy[1]
Democratic Left Alliance [A]
Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej		 SLD Leszek Miller 26
(27) 		0

 5
(6)		 Centre-left – Social democracy[1]
United Poland
Solidarna Polska		 SP Zbigniew Ziobro 12
(0) 		0 4
(0)		 National conservatism, Strong Euroscepticism
Poland Together
Polska Razem		 PR Jaroslaw Gowin 4
(0) 		1
(0) 		4
(0)		 Liberal conservatism
Congress of the New Right
Kongres Nowej Prawicy		 KNP Michał Marusik 2
(0) 		0 4 Economic Libertarianism, Social Conservatism, Euroscepticism, Right-wing
Labour United [A]
Unia Pracy		 UP Waldemar Witkowski 0

 0

 1

 Centre-left – Social democracy[1]

^A SLD and UP contested the 2009 European elections jointly, winning 7 seats between them.

List of parties

Major parties

Middling parties

Minor parties

Formerly important parties or coalitions, since 1989

Other parties

Overview

The transition from a mono-party Communist regime to liberal democracy and pluralism resulted in new political parties mushrooming in the early 1990s. After the first free parliamentary elections in 1991 seats in the Sejm were divided among more than a dozen different parties (amongst them such curiosities as the Polish Beer-Lovers' Party (Polska Partia Przyjaciół Piwa), led by a popular comedy actor, Janusz Rewiński). The existence of so many parties in the Sejm was seen by many as being counterproductive to the effectiveness of the parliament and a hindrance towards producing stable governments. Consequently, electoral reform was undertaken and an electoral threshold for the Lower House was instituted prior to the 1993 elections. The set threshold required a minimum vote of 5% for parties (with exemptions for ethnic minority parties) and 8% for electoral coalitions. The threshold was set at the national, rather than divisional, level, and had the effect of preventing a large number of minor parties from winning seats in later elections. The threshold also prevented independent candidates from gaining election to the Sejm. Since 1990, the left side of the political scene has generally been dominated by former Communists turned social democrats. The right has largely comprised (former) Solidarity activists and supporters, but experienced deep divisions from the beginning, and showed less cohesiveness than the left. The right were unable to create a single bloc which could act as a lasting counterweight to the left-wing monolith, but instead, kept merging, splitting and renaming. Even so, the parties of the right did manage to win government again from 1997-2001 (having initially governed from 1989–93).

Since the parliamentary elections of 2005, the right-wing parties have dominated the political scene, and appear to be in their strongest position to date. Two important developments in the political landscape have taken place since 2005. Firstly, the SLD (Communist successor) party is no longer the major, or one of the two major parties. Secondly, the main political battleground is no longer between the ex-Solidarity right verses the ex-Communist left. The new competing groupings are those of the Law and Justice party (promoting nationalistic and conservative social policies) and the Civic Platform (representing a more conservative-liberal position). The general public disapproval of politics and politicians as a whole, has resulted in almost all major parties excluding the very word "party" from their names, replacing it with words less associated with politics, such as "union", "platform", "league" or "alliance".

All political parties and organizations since 1989

This is a list of political organizations registered in Poland as political parties, societies, foundations, trade unions, electoral committees, electoral alliances and informal groups:

Underground political organizations in Poland, 1945–89

Official political parties and organizations in the People's Republic of Poland, 1948–89

Parties
Organizations

Official parties in Poland, 1945–48

Political parties in the Second Polish Republic, 1918–39

Political parties before 1918

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Parties and Elections in Europe: The database about parliamentary elections and political parties in Europe, by Wolfram Nordsieck
  2. ↑ Vít Hloušek; Lubomír Kopeček (1 June 2010). Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties: East-Central and Western Europe Compared. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-0-7546-7840-3. Retrieved 2 February 2013.

Further reading