Accord<strong>in</strong>g to the orig<strong>in</strong>al plans the federalisation <strong>of</strong> AWS should ensure that AWS would be able toexpress broad appeals. Therefore, <strong>in</strong> order to speed up the process AWS’ member organisation, theSocial Movement-Solidarity Electoral Action ( ”Ruch Spoleczny AWS” (”RS AWS”)), wasestablished 8 January 1997. However, RS AWS had a difficult start. The first congress waspostponed due to the lack <strong>of</strong> agreement on AWS’ future structure. Moreover, from the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g itwas unclear whether RS AWS should constitute an extension <strong>of</strong> the trade union Solidarity or just an<strong>in</strong>dependent policy-creat<strong>in</strong>g unity <strong>in</strong>side AWS. Formally RS AWS declared itself ”<strong>in</strong>dependent”,but the political practice became different. In the statutes <strong>of</strong> RS AWS there was talk aboutcooperation with NSZZ Solidarnosc, i.e. the trade union Solidarity. It was no easy task to f<strong>in</strong>d theoptimal compromise between so many different op<strong>in</strong>ions about the policy l<strong>in</strong>e <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>stitutionalconcepts.Some problems were <strong>in</strong>stitutional, to a great extent due to the low number <strong>of</strong> party members. Notmany from the trade union Solidarity jo<strong>in</strong>ed RS AWS. At the time <strong>of</strong> the foundation politicalleaders there was talk about creat<strong>in</strong>g a mass party consist<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> 200 to 300.000 members. However,those plans soon had to be revised. In 1999 35,000 persons were registrated as members <strong>of</strong> RSAWS, <strong>and</strong> among them only one quarter came from the trade union Solidarity. In Selesia the tradeunion Solidarity consisted <strong>of</strong> 200,000 members, but only 2,000 took the decision to jo<strong>in</strong> RS AWS.RS AWS constituted the greatest group <strong>in</strong> AWS with 138 members <strong>of</strong> the Sejm <strong>and</strong> the Senate afterthe election <strong>in</strong> 1997. The aim was to foster more cohesiveness, mediate between the liberal groups,e.g. SKL <strong>and</strong> the Christian-national ZChN <strong>and</strong> ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> the position as the strongest “leg” <strong>in</strong> AWStaken as a whole.Before long, RS AWS became an elite driven party, a caucus party accord<strong>in</strong>g to Duverger’sterm<strong>in</strong>ology <strong>and</strong> a cartel party <strong>in</strong> Kirschheimer’s. The chairman <strong>of</strong> RS AWS, Jerzy Buzek,recognized some <strong>of</strong> the problems. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to him better party organization on powiat-level <strong>and</strong>better programmatic work might secure a greater <strong>in</strong>flux <strong>of</strong> new members from differebt socialstrata. On the voivod-level RS AWS seemed to be better organized, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>side the parliament RSAWS constituted the greatest s<strong>in</strong>gle group <strong>in</strong> the AWS group <strong>in</strong> parliament after the 1997 election.The most important was to f<strong>in</strong>d the policy-decid<strong>in</strong>g centre. At the congress held <strong>in</strong> January 1999 <strong>in</strong>Gdánsk, Jacek Rybicki was elected as the new chairman <strong>of</strong> RS AWS’ political council. Hispr<strong>in</strong>cipal duty was to foster the necessary compromises between the different factions <strong>in</strong>side thealliance <strong>and</strong> work out a common political programme, thereby reach<strong>in</strong>g a common politicaldenom<strong>in</strong>ator for the AWS as a whole.Some other political groups took the decision to jo<strong>in</strong> RS AWS, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g m<strong>in</strong>or ones such as”Porozumienie Ludowe”, ”Ruch dla Rzeczpospolita”, ”Nowa Polska”, ”Liga Krajowa” <strong>and</strong>”Stowarzyszenie Rodz<strong>in</strong> Katolitickich”. These groups had no big <strong>in</strong>fluence due to low<strong>in</strong>stitutionalisation, too few members <strong>and</strong> modest voter-appeal, but by jo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g RS AWS the political<strong>in</strong>fluence might be <strong>in</strong>creased. By admitt<strong>in</strong>g these groups <strong>in</strong>to the alliance RS AWS may better beable to compete with well-organized groups <strong>and</strong> ”legs” such as the Christian-national party ZChN<strong>and</strong> the conservative-liberal group SKL. Several times SKL <strong>and</strong> ZChN, both members <strong>of</strong> AWS,criticized the centralisation <strong>of</strong> decision mak<strong>in</strong>g both <strong>in</strong>side the trade union Solidarity as well as RSAWS 48 .48 ”Stronnictwo Konserwatywno-Ludowe”.60
After several delays <strong>and</strong> postponements the first congress <strong>of</strong> RS AWS opened <strong>in</strong> February 1999,two years after the foundation. Before the congress Marian Krzaklewski tried to br<strong>in</strong>g RS AWSunder his control thereby avoid<strong>in</strong>g a power struggle by recommend<strong>in</strong>g Prime M<strong>in</strong>ister Jerzy Buzekas the new chairman <strong>of</strong> RS AWS. At that congress Jerzy Buzek was elected as the new chairman,deputy Prime M<strong>in</strong>ister Janusz Tomaszewski became the new general secretary, his primary task wasto take care <strong>of</strong> the day-to-day work. A seven-man group (”G-7”) should take care <strong>of</strong> the mostimportant day-to-day problems. The four political groups (”legs”) <strong>and</strong> the chairman MarianKrzaklewski were represented <strong>in</strong> the “G-7 group”. At the 1999 congress Marian Krzaklewski wasre-elected as both chairman <strong>of</strong> the AWS parliamentary group <strong>and</strong> the trade union Solidarity. Almostall elections were taken unanimously without many previous discussions. Later Tomaszewski, thegeneral secretary, was forced to leave his post because <strong>of</strong> suspicion <strong>of</strong> cooperation with the secretepolice before 1989.Like the trade union Solidarity the party movement (RS AWS) did not rem<strong>in</strong>d us about the oldtrade union Solidarity. RS AWS also failed to decouple trade union Solidarity from political<strong>in</strong>fluence. As noted by Jaroslav Kurski 49 , also RS AWS acted like a political entity that aimed toacquire (”zdobyc”) <strong>and</strong> keep ("”trzymac") power. Therefore both RS AWS <strong>and</strong> AWS rem<strong>in</strong>ds us <strong>of</strong>Vladimir Meciars The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). As we shall see <strong>in</strong> thefollow<strong>in</strong>g section, to a great extent RS AWS’ problems shall be seen as a part <strong>of</strong> the problems<strong>in</strong>side the AWS taken as a whole, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the ongo<strong>in</strong>g debates about how to create a “functionalfederation”2.10. More about the debate about establish<strong>in</strong>g a functional party federationAfter all the aim to establish a functional party federation failed. The first breaches <strong>of</strong> partydiscipl<strong>in</strong>e took place soon after the 1997-election. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to almost all observes, the dissolution<strong>of</strong> AWS <strong>and</strong> the demise <strong>of</strong> the AWS-UW government, would change the political pathways, whichPol<strong>and</strong> had followed until then. Not only left parties, also extremist parties such as Leppers”Samoobrona” or Tym<strong>in</strong>skis ”<strong>Party</strong> X” might benefit from a new split among the right w<strong>in</strong>g parties,also stronger scepticism aga<strong>in</strong>st political parties (“anti-politics”) <strong>in</strong> general might be the end result.Before long Adam Slomka from KPN-OP <strong>and</strong> Janusz Lopuszanski from ZChN were excluded fromAWS because <strong>of</strong> lack <strong>of</strong> party discipl<strong>in</strong>e; after that they formed their own right w<strong>in</strong>g politicalassociation ”Poruzomienie Polski” (PP). In a common declaration they criticised the servility <strong>of</strong>AWS toward the EU <strong>and</strong> the lack <strong>of</strong> a family-friendly tax policy. Furthermore, sharp criticism wasturned aga<strong>in</strong>st the then f<strong>in</strong>ance m<strong>in</strong>ister Leszek Balcerowicz, e.g. his proposal about a new taxsystem with a l<strong>in</strong>ear, non-progressive tax scale. At the 1997-election the more fundamentalistChristian National groups became well represented <strong>in</strong> the new parliament. Many were elected to theparliament from the Christian-National groups <strong>in</strong> spite the fact that they were placed long down onthe c<strong>and</strong>idate lists. The liberal-conservative faction SKL unceas<strong>in</strong>gly talked about the need <strong>of</strong> morediscipl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>and</strong> better policy-creation. However, the dem<strong>and</strong> for better party discipl<strong>in</strong>e, more partycohesiveness <strong>and</strong> a centristic policy l<strong>in</strong>e recommended by SKL were impossible to carry through.The vice-chairman <strong>of</strong> the AWS’ group <strong>in</strong> parliament, Jacek Rybicki, expressed himself <strong>in</strong> the waythat AWS should constitute a federation consist<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> different political group<strong>in</strong>gs, <strong>and</strong> after thattransform<strong>in</strong>g itself to a unitary political party or party-federation. Like the Republican <strong>Party</strong> <strong>in</strong> USthere should be place for different ideological “clubs” <strong>in</strong>side AWS, all support<strong>in</strong>g the basic catholic49 Jaroslaw Kurski, ”Czterdziestolatki”, Gazeta Wyrborcza, 18.1. 1999:1761
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