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

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jobs in rural areas, especially small enterprises in the service sector and trades in stead of givingmore state support to small inefficient farmers.The peasant parties were strongly represented after the re-emergence of the Polish state after WorldWar I. At the first election in 1919 the three peasant parties, PSL, “Wyswolenie” PSL “Piast” andPSL “Lewica” together gained 130, at the 1922 election 115 seats in parliament. After thecommunist take-over after WW II the United Peasants Party (ZSL) was established. That partyexisted in the whole communist period, cooperating with the ruling communist party (PZPR). Soonafter the demise of real socialism, in May 1990, post-communist PSL “Odrodzenie” took thedecision to merge with PSL “Wilanowski”and form a new common party (PSL). PSL“Wilanowski’s” roots go back to Mikolajczyks peasant party, that after WW III dared to defy thecommunists and as a consequence of that was persecuted and in the end forbidden by theauthorities.Roman Bartoszcz, one of the founders of green Solidarity in 1980, was elected as leader of the newunited peasant party (PSL). At the outset the party was well institutionalised with a cemented partyorganisation and, according to the party’s own calculations about 200.000 party members. After thedefeat at the 1990 presidential election Roman Bartoszcz resigned as the leader of the party and wasreplaced by the younger Waldemar Pawlak. At the 1991 election PSL won 8.67 percent of thevotes, at the 1993 election the share of the votes increased to 15.5 pct. After the 1993 election PSLtook the decision to join the SLD led majority government. The majority was won because of thenew election law that raised the treshold requirement and was beneficial especially for big parties.At that election the Polish Right lost many seats in parliament due to the lack of election alliances.After the defeat at the 1997 Waldemar Pawlak resigned as the chairman of the party, but thedisagreements between the different factions inside the party were not eliminated because of thechange in party leadership.Seen from the SLD the peasants party (PSL) better than other possible coalition partners may securea stable relationship to the church and the president (Walesa). In spite of the post-communist pastLech Walesa was less dismissive of cooperating with PSL than SLD. In addition, the inclusion ofPSL in the government was considered a condition for obtaining the sufficient support from thePolish farmers. Opinion polls from CBOS placed Waldemar Pawlak and PSL as a whole left to thepolical middle 61 . PSL establish strong clientelist networks in the rural areas and on voivod-level. Inthe first years the PSL members of parliament several times behaved differently at voting in theparliament, nonetheless until the 1993 PSL appeared like an opposition party to all the thenSolidarity led governments.The Peasants Party (PSL) has been a spokesman for going a “third way”. It supported the transitionto market economy, at least in words, but was at the same time underling the neccessity of morestate intervention. More state intervention may foster economic growth, secure more investmentsand structural reforms in education, pension systems, improve living conditions in rural areas andstrengthen local self-government. Unfortunately, old ideals and values, unelastic party programmes,irrational behaviour, veto party factions and internal disagreements about the policy line have beenbeen striking.PSL persistently acted as a lobbyist for agricultural interests and has for that reason taken a criticalposition to the EU. The old municipal and regional structure that gave the party a considerable61 Spotkania 28 January-3 February 1993:13 in a special section about the Polish Left (”Lewa w marszu”.74
influence on the local level, should be maintained according to the party. The strongholds of theparty has been the small towns and thinly populated areas. For those reasons PSL could not assistthe government as regards the plans about reducing the number of regions (voivods) and introduce anew administrative middle level (the powiaty’s).The attitudes among the electorate living in rural areas have been interventionist and egalitarian.The farmers have typically been conservative minded and only rarely satisfied with the policyconducted by the governments, be they right or left. Many farmers felt that their jobs have lostprestige after 1989 and therefore expressed some “nostalgia” for the period before 1989, especiallythe “good 1970s” under Edward Gierek (“the retrospective utopia”).At the 1993 election PSL obtained some support from those farmers who before 1989 had beenemployed on the state own farms (PRG). The electoral success of PSL took place at the expense ofthose rural parties that had their origin in the Solidarity movement. Thus at the 1993 election PSLgained about 40 percent of the votes among farmers, however, among less educated only 17 percent(Knuzewski, 1998:151). On the other hand, at the1997-election many former PSL voters voted SLDand, as regards right-traditionalist minded people, Election Alliance Solidarity (AWS). At the 1997election AWS’ share of the farmers vote was 33 percent or almost the same share that voted SLDand first on the third place we find PSL.Thus the 1997 election- and later the 2001 election- punctured the myth that the farmers and theelectorate in rural areas constitute a well disciplined and stable voter group at every nationalelection bringing PSL in a key position. The 26 seats in the parliament elected in 1997 were not initself impressing, but enough to keep the party over the water surface. Most important was that theparty was a well organised unity and that representation in the municipial and regional councils keptintact. In other words, the PSL had gained an ”immune defence” in case of a temporary politicalsetback.The power struggle between Jagielski and Pawlak intensified after the 1997 election, but theresignation of Pawlak as the party chairman did not usher a policy-change. Jagielski took thedecision to form his own peasant party, but without any success. Working in opposition PSL triedto regain the voters the party lost to AWS at the 1997 election based on the calculation that it waseasier to recapture dissatisfied AWS votes than gain votes from left wing parties. At that time alsoSLD was in opposition to the government and like AWS not responsible for unpopular laws andpolicy initiatives.After the 1997 election PSL accused AWS of giving in to the liberal and pro-EU Freedom Union(UW). Especially the minister of finance Leszek Balcerowic was accused of conducting an asocialneo-liberal policy damaging for the rural areas and the employment in general 62 . According to PSLthe AWS-UW government’s policy onesidedly focused on combating inflation 63 . For that reasonseveral times PSL put forward votes of non-confidence to the minister of finance in the parliament.In short, to a great extent the policy demands of PSL have focused on limitations on sale of realproperty to foreigners, rejection of the new municipal and regional reform and more state support tothe family holdings, also in case of negotiations about a revised constitution. According to the party,the alternative to the AWS-UW economic policy was an active export orientated investment and62 See e.g. Jaroslaw Kalinowski, ”Proponujeme tzecia droge”, Rzeczpospolita, 16 January 1999.63 Interview with Kalinowski in Gazeta Wyborcza 11 February 1999:14.75
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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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Page 66 and 67: 2001 parliamentary election, howeve
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