Development of Parties and Party Systems in ... - lah@sam.sdu.dk

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The Labour Union (UP), Democratic Union (UD) and the left-wing SLD appealed to almost thesame social groups. At the 1993 election UP surprisingly gained 7,3 pct. of the votes and 41 seats inparliament, more than first expected. The party received some electoral support due to its oppositionto the restrictive abortion laws and the interference of the church in politics. UP mostly appealed toworkers and low educated groups, but obtaining considerable support also from better educated,similar to SLD, UD and KL-D. Surprisingly more farmers than workers voted on the party(Knuzewski:153).Later, at the 1997 election the Labour Union (UP) lost the representation in parliament. Thus UPdid not benefit from four years in opposition to the government. Before the election the party aimedto gain more electoral support by criticizing the privatization policy and SLDs generallytechnocratic and power-focusing line. According to Bugaj SLD did not express “authentic” leftvalues as SLD impeded the formation of a democratic, forward looking and authentic left policy.At the 1998 election to regions and municipalities the election result was better for UP. Before thatelection formed an election alliance (“Przymierze Spoleczne”) with the PSL that in the end showedto be most beneficial for the better organised Peasamts Party (PSL). At the beginning of 1998several from Bugajs faction left UP and joined the Freedom Union (UW), in some cases withoutformally leaving UP. Before the 1997 election the representation in parliament was reduced to 36seats, as former UP members joined the new political independent association “Nowa Demokracja”.As said, the crucial point of disagreement was the attitudes to the past. The principal aim of UP wasto appear to the electorate as an authentic left wing party without roots in the old system. Thatprofile, it was argued, might be lost by joining a SLD led government. As regards the attitudes tothe time before 1989 the party took a centrist position. On the one side the radical anticommunismon the Right was rejected, on the other side the party tried to move Polish society away from the oldsystem. The first party leader Ryszard Bugaj expressed the opinion that those who wanted decommunisation(“dekomunizacja”), had to prove that the new system that they aimed to build up,correspond with the aims of the majority of the people and besides that also enhanced consolidationof democracy. Those demands, he said, has clearly not been fulfilled in case of the right wingparties 94 .The disagreement about the right policy line resulted, as noted above, in several defections from theUP. December 1998 eight members from Bugajs group left the party aguing that the electionalliance “Przymierze Spoleczne” and the appointments that took place after the regional and localelections in October 1998 turned out to be most beneficial not to UP, but to the “post-communists”.They refused to support re-election of the president (Kwasniewski) and accused UP of reinforcingthe divide of the political scene in “post-Solidarity” and a “post-communist” groups. The leadershipof the Labour Union (UP) rejected accusations about being just an “appendage” to the much betterorganised peasant party (PSL). That PSL profited most from the cooperation could not be denied 95 .The policy differences became insurmountable. Rychard Bugaj was not even invited as a guest atthe UP congress in February 2000, at which several other guests from groupings on the Polish Leftwere invited.94 Rychard Bugaj, “Fundament niezupelnie etyczny”, Rzeczpospolita 12.11., 1999:A1.95 The struggle inside UP after the 1998 local elections is analysed e.g. in Gazeta Wyborcza 15.12. 1998 (“Partia Bugajabez Bugaja”).100
After the defection Bugaj formed a new political club 96 . Bugaj spoke about the need of a new Left,a “third way” without close cooperation with the “post-communists”. Furthermore, he argued thatPoland was in need of a new authentic left party being able to appeal to those voters that did notsupport SLD. Thus, Bugajs group mostly consisted of intellectuals in opposition to “postcommunists”.A “dismissive” policy line against SLD would inevitably lead to close cooperationwith the right-traditionalist AWS and the right-liberal Freedom Union (UW). According to Bugajcooperating with SLD might give more space for formation of a “fourth element” in Polish politics– outside the three existing ones, AWS, SLD and UP-PSL. Later Bugaj joined the Peasant Party(PSL) expressing distinct eurosceptical views as regards the negotiations with the EU and the futureof EU integration.Aleksander Malachowski, one of the other founders of the Labour Union (UP), did not share Bugajsrejection of cooperation with the “post-communists”. Also the majority in UP did not seem to rejectfurther cooperation with SLD and PSL, clearly manifested at the 1998 local election and theproposal about establishment of a Left “round table”. Marek Pol, the UPs leader in 1999, repeatedlyexpressed the opinion that the Polish Left needed only one single block and a common electionprogramme. Such a political block should be withou the “baggage of the past” and in the forefrontwhen fighting against political right and catholic fundamentalism 97 . Therefore the majority in theUP leadership accepted cooperation with SLD at the 2001 election with the aim to regainrepresentation in the parliament.Another dilemma was the choice of strategy leading to the presidential election year 2000. Theparty was not able to put forward its own presidential candidate, arguing that taking part inpresidential election was too expensive for the party. On the other hand it was not easy to supportSLDs Aleksander Kwasniewski unconditionally. The party leadership did not dare to take the finaldecision and let the members take the choice through a party referendum, which gave Kwasniewskia clear majority.As noted above, an election agreement between UP and SLD was established in October 2000, oneyear before next ordinary election. After the 2001 election SLD-UP established a majoritygovernment together with the peasant party (PSL). The electoral alliance with SLD secured someseats in parliament, but for the the heavy price of being dependent on Leszek Miller and SLD.According to the opinion polls carried out after the 2001 election, at a new election UP would notpass the threshold by “going alone”. The chairman Marek Pol did badly according to opinion pollsand later, in spring 2004 he had to resign as party chairman. For tactical reasons UP could not breakthe cooperation with SLD in spite of low electoral support and modest influence in the government,e.g. i the case of Polish participation in the war in Iraq, the economic policy and the “Hausner-plan”for restructuring public finances, that included several unpopular social cuts on the the state budget.Demands of reconstruction of the cabinet was put forward in March 2004 by some politicians fromthe Labour Union (UP), but those demands were rejected by Prime Minister Leszek Miller. Afterthe resignation of Leszek Miller and formation of a new transitory government led by Marek Belkaa fundamentally new situation emerged. Thus, the close bonds to SLD were broken and soon plansabout establishing a new more authetic left alliance without the participation of SLD and the newsocial democratic party (SDLP) including some small groups from the Left, e.g. Polish SocialistParty (PPS), the Greens and Polish Labour Part (PPP) and the anticlerical group (“Racja”) came up.96 “Stowarzyszenie Studiów i Inicjiatyw Spolecznych”.97 Eliza Olczyk, „Socjaldemokratyczna wydmuszka“, Rzeczpospolita 27-28 March, 1999:3.101
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“This provisional situation chara
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marketisation and privatisationshor
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purposes, are channels for “expre
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the significance of strategic choic
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presidentialism gave rise to “flo
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antipolitics and reinforcement of a
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In the late 1990’s elections most
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determined primarily by “politica
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politics and antipolitics, all sign
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which attitudes to state regulation
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Anti-communism has been defined in
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elections and the Slovak communists
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Cartel agreementsbetter representat
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Basically the absence of clear cons
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After 1989 different types of polit
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complex project for transition unde
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window of opportunity in spite of s
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analyses of party institutionalizat
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political messages and slogans. Thu
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well established party culture may
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expected, much due to the many spli
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Furthermore, the polarisation on el
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Finally, Solidarity can also be con
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