Polish People's Party

The Polish People's Party (Polish: Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe), abbreviated to PSL (traditionally translated as Polish Peasants' Party), often shortened to ludowcy ('the populars') is an agrarian[18][19][20] Christian-democratic[20][21] political party in Poland. It is a member of the European People's Party and the European People's Party group in the European Parliament.

This article is about the current political party. For other uses, see Polish People's Party (disambiguation).

Polish People's Party

Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe
LeaderWładysław Kosiniak-Kamysz
Founded1895 (current name adopted in 1903)
1990 (current party)
Merger ofPolish People's Party (Wilanów faction)
Polish People's Party "Rebirth" (successor of United People's Party)
Splittings from Rural Solidarity and Polish People's Party "Solidarity"
Preceded byUnited People's Party
Headquartersul. Kopernika 36/40, 00-924 Warsaw
Membership (2015)140,000[1]
IdeologyCurrent:
Centrism[2]
Agrarianism[3][4]
Conservatism[5]
Social conservatism[6]
Christian democracy[4][5]
Peasant movement[7]
Social market economy[8]
Pro-Europeanism[9]
Environmentalism[10]
Historical (1990s):
Agrarian socialism
Social democracy[11][12][13]
Christian left
Left-wing nationalism
Political positionCentre[14] to centre-right[15][16]
Historical (1990s):
Centre-left to Left-wing
National affiliationPolish Coalition
European affiliationEuropean People's Party
European Parliament groupEuropean People's Party
Colours     Green
Anthem"Rota"
Sejm
20 / 460
[17]
Senate
2 / 100
European Parliament
3 / 52
Regional assemblies
70 / 552
Website
www.psl.pl

The party's name traces its tradition to an agrarian party in Austro-Hungarian-controlled Galician Poland, which sent MPs to the parliament in Vienna.[7]

History

Before 1945

The party was formed in 1895 in the Polish town of Rzeszow under the name Stronnictwo Ludowe (People's Party). The party changed its name in 1903 to what it's known as now. The party was led by Wincenty Witos and was quite successful, seating representatives in the Galician parliament before the turn of the 19th century. In the Second Polish Republic there were a few parties named PSL (Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie", Polish People's Party "Piast", Polish People's Party "Left" and others) until they were removed by the Sanacja regime (see also People's Party).

During this time there were two parties using the term "Polish People's Party": Polish People's Party "Piast" and Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" (which were merged into People's Party with Stronnictwo Chłopskie). During World War II, PSL took part in forming the Polish government in exile.

Under the communist regime
Support for the PSL by region in 2007 Polish parliamentary election

After the war, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, a PSL leader who had been Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, returned to communist-dominated Poland, where he joined the provisional government and rebuilt PSL. The party hoped to win the Yalta Conference-mandated elections and help establish a parliamentary system in Poland. The communists formed a rival peasant party allied with them. The 1947 parliamentary election was heavily rigged, with the communist-controlled bloc claiming to have won 80 percent of the vote. Many neutral observers believe the PSL would have won the election had it been conducted fairly.

Mikołajczyk was soon compelled to flee Poland for his life. The communists then forced the remains of Mikołajczyk's PSL to unite with the pro-communist People's Party to form the United People's Party. The ZSL was a governing partner in the ruling coalition.[22]

After the fall of the regime

Around the time of the fall of communism several PSLs were recreated, including: Porozumienie Ludowe, Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe - Odrodzenie, and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (Wilanów faction). In 1989 most merged into one party and took part in forming the first postwar noncommunist government in Poland with the Solidarity grouping, and in 1990 changed its name to PSL.

It remained on the left of Polish politics in the 1990s, entering into coalitions with the postcommunist Democratic Left Alliance. However, in the 2001 parliamentary elections PSL received 9% of votes and formed a coalition with the Democratic Left Alliance, an alliance which later broke down. Since then PSL has moved towards more centrist and conservative policies.

After 2004

The party ran in the 2004 European Parliament election as part of the European People's Party (EPP) and received 6% of the vote, giving it 4 of 54 Polish seats in the European Parliament. In the 2005 general election the party received 7% of votes, giving it 25 seats in the Sejm and 2 in the Senate. In the 2007 parliamentary elections the party placed fourth, with 8.93% of the vote and 31 out of 460 seats, and entered into a governing coalition with the victor, the centre-right conservative Civic Platform.

In European parliament elections PSL received 7.01% of votes in 2009[23].

In the 2011 national parliamentary election Polish People's Party received 8.36% votes which gave them 28 seats in the Sejm and 2 mandates in the Senate.[24] At the 2015 parliamentary election, the PSL dropped to 5.13 percent of the vote, just barely over the 5 percent threshold. With 16 seats, it was the smallest of the five factions in the Sejm.[25]

Since then PSL has lost even more support to PiS during the 2018 Polish local elections when they lost 87 seats and dropped to 12.07% unlike the 23.9% they got at the last local elections. After this, the party became junior partner in coalitions with Civic Coalition and SLD.

In 2019 European election PSL won 3 seats as a part of the European Coalition.[26]

For parliamentary elections in the same year PSL decided to create centrist and Christian-democratic coalition with or without Civic Platform named as Polish Coalition.[27] However, PO recreated Civic Coalition with Modern and small left-wing parties (although without major left-wing parties). Polish Coalition, apart from PSL, consists of Kukiz'15, Union of European Democrats and another liberal, catholic and regionalist organisations.[28][29][30] This coalition resulted in election of 30 members. Majority of them (20) were members of PSL.

Ideology

The party's platform is strongly based on neo-agrarianism.[3] On social and ethical issues, PSL opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, soft drug decriminalization, euthanasia and death penalty.[31]

In 2019, the party adopted (as part of an agreement with Kukiz'15) in the party's platform direct democracy's postulates, including single-member districts and obligatory referendum.[32]

Election results

Support

The Party's traditional support base consisted of farmers, peasants and rural voters. Voters are generally more social conservative than voters of Civic Platform.[33] The main concurrent in rural areas is national conservative Law and Justice (PiS).[34]

In the 2010s the party started to lose support between rural voters (especially in southeast of Poland). In 2019 election PSL gained surprisingly significant support in cities and won mandates (e. g. in Warsaw and Wrocław)[35].

Sejm
Election year # of
votes		 % of
vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Govt?
1989[36] 16.5 (#3)
76 / 460
 41 Coalition
1991 972,952 8.7 (#5)
48 / 460
 28 Government Support
1993 2,124,367 15.4 (#2)
132 / 460
 84 Coalition
1997 956,184 7.3 (#4)
27 / 460
 105 Opposition
2001 1,168,659 9.0 (#5)
42 / 460
 15 Coalition until 2003
2005 821,656 7.0 (#6)
25 / 460
 17 Opposition
2007 1,437,638 8.9 (#4)
31 / 460
 6 Coalition
2011 1,201,628 8.4 (#4)
28 / 460
 3 Coalition
2015 779,875 5.1 (#6)
16 / 460
 12 Opposition
2019 1,578,523 8.6 (#4)
20 / 460
 4 Opposition
As part of Polish Coalition, which won 30 seats in total.

Senate
Election year # of
overall seats won		 +/–
1991
7 / 100
 4
1993
36 / 100
 29
1997
3 / 100
 33
2001
4 / 100
 1
2005
2 / 100
 2
2007
0 / 100
 2
2011
2 / 100
 2
2015
1 / 100
 1
2019[37][38]
2 / 100
 1

Presidential
Election year Candidate 1st round 2nd round
# of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall votes % of overall vote
1990 Roman Bartoszcze 1,176,175 7.2 (#5)
1995 Waldemar Pawlak 770,419 4.3 (#5)
2000 Jarosław Kalinowski 1,047,949 6.0 (#4)
2005 Jarosław Kalinowski 269,316 1.8 (#5)
2010 Waldemar Pawlak 294,273 1.8 (#5)
2015 Adam Jarubas 238,761 1.6 (#6)
2020 Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz 459,365 2.4 (#5)

Regional assemblies
Election year % of
vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/–
1998 12.0 (#3)
89 / 855
As part of the Social Alliance.
2002 10.8 (#5)
58 / 561
 31
2006 13.2 (#4)
83 / 561
 25
2010 16.3 (#3)
93 / 561
 10
2014 23.9 (#3)
157 / 555
 64
2018 12.1 (#3)
70 / 552
 87

European Parliament
Election year # of
votes		 % of
vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/–
2004 386,340 6.3 (#7)
4 / 54
2009 516,146 7.0 (#4)
3 / 50
 1
2014 480,846 6.8 (#5)
4 / 51
 1
2019 5,249,935 38.5 (#2)
3 / 52
 1
As the European Coalition which won 22 seats in total

Leadership

Chairman:

Voivodeship Marshals
Name Image Voivodeship Date Vocation
Adam Struzik Masovian Voivodeship 10 December 2001
Gustaw Marek Brzezin Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship 12 December 2014
gollark: It could probably work well for that.
gollark: Very bull[REDACTED].
gollark: Ah yes, the "bull[REDACTED]" of abstractions being good.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: There are bare-metal WASM interpreters, which I think could be really neat.

See also

References
  1. Skomra, Sławomir. "Jak wstąpić do PiS? Coraz więcej chętnych by stać się członkiem partii rządzącej". Kurier Lubelski. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  2. "Kosiniak-Kamysz: PSL to jedyna partia w centrum". tvn24.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  3. Tomczak, Tomasz (2006). Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe – trwały element polskiego parlamentu?. DUET. pp. 129–155.
  4. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Poland". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  5. "Kosiniak-Kamysz: W wyborach do sejmików województw i rad powiatów PSL pójdzie raczej samodzielnie". wpolityce.pl. Archived from the original on 4 January 2018.
  6. Henningsen, Bernd (2017). The Baltic Sea Region. BWV Verlag. p. 352.
  7. "Nasza historia". psl.pl (in Polish).
  8. ""Społeczna gospodarka rynkowa w programie Polskiego Stronnictwa Ludowego" tematem Wielkopolskiej Konwencji PSL". wielkopolska.psl.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  9. "PSL wchodzi do Koalicji Europejskiej. Kosiniak-Kamysz: To nie jest "antyzwiązek"". gazeta.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  10. "PSL - ekologia". psl.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  11. "Mapa partii politycznych" [Map of political parties]. jadamski.eu (in Polish). Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  12. "Koalicja SLD-PSL". rmf.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  13. "PSl - liderzy, sondaże". wiadomosci.wp.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  14. "FACTBOX: Profiles of Poland's main political parties". Reuters. 7 September 2007. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  15. Nardelli, Alberto (22 October 2015). "Polish elections 2015: a guide to the parties, polls and electoral system". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
  16. Fitzmaurice, J. (28 September 1998). "Politics and Government in the Visegrad Countries: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia". Springer. Archived from the original on 10 October 2017 – via Google Books.
  17. "Kluby i koła". sejm.gov.pl. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  18. Cerami, Alfio (2006). Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: The Emergence of a New European Welfare Regime. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 18. ISBN 978-3-8258-9699-7.
  19. Jennifer Lees-Marshment (2009). Political Marketing: Principles and Applications. Routledge. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-134-08411-1.
  20. Guardiancich, Igor (21 August 2012). Pension Reforms in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe: From Post-Socialist Transition to the Global Financial Crisis. Routledge. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-136-22595-6.
  21. Magone, José (2010). Contemporary European Politics: A Comparative Introduction. Routledge. p. 457. ISBN 978-0-203-84639-1.
  22. David Ost, Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics, pp. 34-36, 1990 Philadelphia, Temple University Press, ISBN 0-87722-655-5
  23. "Dz.U. 2009 nr 88 poz. 729". isap.sejm.gov.pl (in Polish).
  24. "Elections 2011 - Election results". National Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 14 December 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
  25. Tworzecki, Hubert; Markowski, Radosław (3 November 2015). "Did Poland just vote in an authoritarian government?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 5 December 2016.
  26. Majewski, Marek (30 May 2019). "Nowi europosłowie 2019. Kto zdobył mandaty do europarlamentu? [LISTA] [NAZWISKA] Wyniki wyborów do PE. Zobacz, kto został europosłem!". Polska Times (in Polish). Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  27. "PSL chce koalicji z PO. Bez SLD i Wiosny". wp.pl. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  28. "Kto w Koalicji Polskiej? PSL prowadzi rozmowy". fakty.interia.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  29. "PSL na Śląsku. Porozumienia z ugrupowaniami regionalnymi". fakty.interia.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  30. ""Po wyborach wspólny klub. Nie ma tu dyskusji". PSL wchłonie Kukiz'15?". www.tvp.info (in Polish). Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  31. "WYBORY 2015 - Komitety a kwestie światopoglądowe". niedziela.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  32. "Program polityczny PSL - 2019" (PDF). psl.pl (in Polish).
  33. "Na kogo zagłosują wyborcy PSL? Czesław Siekierski odpowiada". radio.kielce.pl (in Polish).
  34. "PSL wybiera władze i walczy o życie. PiS nie ukrywa, że chce pozbyć się konkurenta ze wsi". Polityka (in Polish).
  35. https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/02/07/what-are-the-prospects-for-the-polish-peasant-party/
  36. as United People's Party
  37. "Senatorowie / Senatorowie / Kluby i koła / Senat Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej". www.senat.gov.pl. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  38. "PARLAMENTARZYŚCI UED". www.uniaeuropejskichdemokratow.pl. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
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