Development of Parties and Party Systems in ... - lah@sam.sdu.dk
Development of Parties and Party Systems in ... - lah@sam.sdu.dk
Development of Parties and Party Systems in ... - lah@sam.sdu.dk
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pressuriz<strong>in</strong>g the government to give more f<strong>in</strong>ancial support for farmers. In the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> the1990’s Lepper himself had taken loans <strong>in</strong> banks <strong>and</strong> thereby br<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g him <strong>in</strong> an almost <strong>in</strong>solubledebt situation. Thus Samoobrona mostly appealed to the medium size farms, the new classconsist<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> rather well-<strong>of</strong>f farmers who had run <strong>in</strong> debt <strong>in</strong> order to exp<strong>and</strong> the farm or lease morel<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> these well-<strong>of</strong>f farmers were well represented <strong>in</strong> the party leadership <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> the deputygroup <strong>in</strong> parliament 66 . Thus, most leaders <strong>of</strong> Sammobrona belonged to the group <strong>of</strong> rather well-<strong>of</strong>fdebat-ridden farmers. Before 1989 many <strong>in</strong> the leadership <strong>of</strong> Samoobrona had even been members<strong>of</strong> PZPR. Institutionally Samoobrona has been dist<strong>in</strong>ctly centralist with almost dictatorial power tochairman Andrej Lepper. The top-down deciscion mak<strong>in</strong>g procedures evoked protest among localelected Samoobrona people <strong>and</strong> also <strong>in</strong>side the parliament group. Several defections from the partytook place <strong>in</strong> 2003.In the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> 2002 Lepper withdraw from the post as chairman, but only formally. Before the2001 election Andrzej Lepper had already run for the presidential election two times, at the 1995election only ga<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g1.3 pct <strong>of</strong> the votes, <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g the figure to 3 pct. <strong>in</strong> 2000. At the 1997election the share <strong>of</strong> the votes had been only 0.1 pct. At the elections <strong>in</strong> the 1990’s violent roaddemonstrations organized by Samoobrona became a barrier for election success. Opposite, at the2001 election those actions became an advantage for the party due to <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g social frustrations<strong>in</strong> the Polish population.Opposite PSL Samoobrona obta<strong>in</strong>ed many votes <strong>in</strong> the bigger towns, <strong>in</strong> the last stage <strong>of</strong> the electioncampaign even ga<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g votes from former SLD supporters. The blackmail potential was great,opposite the coalition potential extremely low. As regards the EU membership Samoobrona hasfollowed an euro sceptic, but not totally negative policy l<strong>in</strong>e, also argu<strong>in</strong>g for closer commercialrelations to Russia, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g f<strong>in</strong>ancial support for export <strong>of</strong> foodstuffs to Russia. The leadership <strong>of</strong>Samoobrona <strong>in</strong>cluded Tadeusz Mazanek, the leader <strong>of</strong> the association “No to the European Union”.Unlike Samoobrona, PSL followed a more euro-realistic l<strong>in</strong>e, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> the SLD-PSL governmentestablished after the 2001 election, the party persistently opposed concessions on sale <strong>of</strong> farm l<strong>and</strong>to foreigners. Furthermore, the party has dem<strong>and</strong>ed m<strong>in</strong>or <strong>in</strong>dependence for the National Bank, thatwas accused <strong>of</strong> a conduct<strong>in</strong>g a too restrictive monetary policy. The party put forward proposalsexpensive for the state budget, e.g. that debt <strong>of</strong> students at universities should be reduced <strong>and</strong>forgiven after five years <strong>in</strong> job <strong>in</strong> Pol<strong>and</strong>. Economic populism has been strik<strong>in</strong>g, but not xenophobia<strong>and</strong> anti-Semitism such as <strong>in</strong> the case <strong>of</strong> the extreme Right. Among those vot<strong>in</strong>g PSL a majorityconsists <strong>of</strong> men, opposite the voters <strong>of</strong> the Liga <strong>of</strong> Polish Families (LPR) that most appeals to femalvoters.Where Samoobrona literally worked extra-parliamentary, i.e. on the roads, PSL to a greater extent,<strong>and</strong> much due to higher party <strong>in</strong>stitutionalization, worked “through words”, be<strong>in</strong>g will<strong>in</strong>g to enterpolitical compromises, work<strong>in</strong>g on regional <strong>and</strong> municipal levels <strong>and</strong> by putt<strong>in</strong>g forward proposals<strong>in</strong> parliament. After the local <strong>and</strong> regional elections autumn 2002 Samooobrona <strong>in</strong> some casesdecided to cooperate with SLD. Later that cooperation was cancelled due to decisions taken <strong>in</strong> theSamoobrona leadership <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> spite <strong>of</strong> protests from several Samoobrona local activists. In summer2003 17 Samoobrona deputies left the party. At least until the 2001 election PSL could benefit fromits greater organisational strength. To a great extent the differences on policy level between PSL<strong>and</strong> Samoobrona rem<strong>in</strong>ds us about the differences between the two right-traditionalist parties ZChN66 Barbara Fedyszak-Radziejowska, “Wies polska po wyborach:radikalizacja wyborów”, <strong>in</strong>: “Przyslosc polskiej scenypolitycznej po wyborach 2001”, Institut Spraw Publicznych, Warszawa 2002:62.:78