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
<strong>and</strong> PP. Those support<strong>in</strong>g Samoobrona neither trusted PSL or SLD <strong>and</strong> had to a great extent been“s<strong>of</strong>a-voters” at previous elections.Thus, support for PSL was rather low <strong>in</strong> the smaller towns. To some extent Samoobrona succeeded<strong>in</strong> activat<strong>in</strong>g former “s<strong>of</strong>a-voters”. Opposite PSL Samoobrona at the 2001 election managed topenetrate the bigger towns, gett<strong>in</strong>g the votes from many unemployed <strong>and</strong> socially marg<strong>in</strong>alized. Assaid, due to the participation <strong>of</strong> Samoobrona <strong>in</strong> the election the differences <strong>in</strong> vot<strong>in</strong>g behaviourbetween town <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong> became smaller. The support for Samoobrona has to be regarded as anactivization <strong>of</strong> the town-l<strong>and</strong> contradictions that until the 2001 election had not been decisive. Onpolicy level Lepper talked about a “third way” for Pol<strong>and</strong> that should be neither socialist norcapitalist.Seen over the period as a whole PSL has belonged to the rather successful class parties <strong>in</strong> theCEEC`s. That about one third <strong>of</strong> the Polish population lives <strong>in</strong> rural areas has clearly been anadvantage. The challenges posed by Polish agriculture has almost been <strong>of</strong> the same reach asovercom<strong>in</strong>g the legacy <strong>of</strong> totalitarianism <strong>and</strong> real socialism. Before 1989 the farmers had been <strong>in</strong>front fight<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>st the old regime, after 1989 they became an obstacle for the modernization <strong>of</strong>the l<strong>and</strong> districts <strong>and</strong> the reorganization <strong>of</strong> Polish society <strong>and</strong> thereby also a serious problem for theadoption to the EU.The cooperation <strong>in</strong> government with SLD-UP <strong>in</strong>evitably sharpened the conflicts betweenpragmatistis <strong>and</strong> fundamentalists. The results <strong>of</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g part <strong>in</strong> government has not been appreciatedby the majority <strong>of</strong> the Polish farmers, a few months after the 2001 election about 75 pct. <strong>of</strong> thefarmers expressed the op<strong>in</strong>ion that the new SLD-PSL government had not kept what it promised. Inother words it may be mean<strong>in</strong>gful to dist<strong>in</strong>guish between the “PSL” <strong>in</strong> government <strong>and</strong> the “activist(“roszczeniowe”)” PSL work<strong>in</strong>g outside the parliament <strong>and</strong> the <strong>of</strong>ficial structures. The strongercompetition from Andrzej Leppers populist party movement Sammoobrona made an impact on thepolicy l<strong>in</strong>e 67 .2.14. Democratic Union (UD), the Freedom Union (UW) <strong>and</strong> the Civic Platform (PO)On the conservative-liberal end we f<strong>in</strong>d the Polish Freedom Union (UW), a sister party <strong>and</strong> modelfor the Czech Freedom Union (US). The Freedom Union (UW) was established <strong>in</strong> 1994 after amerger between the Liberal-Democratic Congress (KL-D) <strong>and</strong> Democratic Union (DU). Beforethat, ROAD, the greatest s<strong>in</strong>gle group <strong>in</strong>side the Solidarity-movement <strong>and</strong> the forerunner <strong>of</strong>Demcratic Union (UD) had itself been established as a amalgamation <strong>of</strong> different political clubs. Atthe outset Aleks<strong>and</strong>er Halls Forum for the Democratic Right constituted the greatest s<strong>in</strong>gle group<strong>in</strong>side the Democratic Union (UD). After some time Aleks<strong>and</strong>er Hall left Democratic Union (UD),<strong>in</strong> stead jo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g Election Action Solidarity (AWS), <strong>in</strong> which he became the leader <strong>of</strong> the liberalfaction SKL.From the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g UD was divided <strong>in</strong> different non-veto policy creat<strong>in</strong>g factions. The presidentialc<strong>and</strong>idate for UD at the 1995 presidential election, Jacek Kuron, argued that the party did not needto concentrate its attention on the middle class that at that time was almost non-exist<strong>in</strong>g, but moreon what he called the “worker elite”. In stead , he said, the Democratic Union (UD) should br<strong>in</strong>g theworkers on the big state enterprises a perspective <strong>and</strong> hope for the future. At the outset theDemocratic Union (UD) constituted a loose coalition <strong>of</strong> conservatives, liberals <strong>and</strong> social67 Se e.g. <strong>in</strong>terview with Janusz Piechoc<strong>in</strong>ski, Gazeta Wyborcza 12 February 2002:12, “Dla kogo spiewa PSL”.79
- Page 3:
“This provisional situation chara
- Page 6 and 7:
marketisation and privatisationshor
- Page 8 and 9:
purposes, are channels for “expre
- Page 10 and 11:
the significance of strategic choic
- Page 12 and 13:
presidentialism gave rise to “flo
- Page 14 and 15:
antipolitics and reinforcement of a
- Page 16 and 17:
In the late 1990’s elections most
- Page 18 and 19:
determined primarily by “politica
- Page 20 and 21:
politics and antipolitics, all sign
- Page 22 and 23:
which attitudes to state regulation
- Page 24 and 25:
Anti-communism has been defined in
- Page 26 and 27:
elections and the Slovak communists
- Page 28 and 29: Cartel agreementsbetter representat
- Page 30 and 31: Basically the absence of clear cons
- Page 32 and 33: After 1989 different types of polit
- Page 34 and 35: complex project for transition unde
- Page 36 and 37: window of opportunity in spite of s
- Page 38 and 39: analyses of party institutionalizat
- Page 40 and 41: political messages and slogans. Thu
- Page 42 and 43: well established party culture may
- Page 44 and 45: expected, much due to the many spli
- Page 46 and 47: Furthermore, the polarisation on el
- Page 48 and 49: Finally, Solidarity can also be con
- Page 50 and 51: whole, on the one side an authorita
- Page 52 and 53: The economic recession and the grav
- Page 54 and 55: election defeat more cooperation an
- Page 56 and 57: The formation of AWS can be conside
- Page 58 and 59: group. RS AWS constituted the Chris
- Page 60 and 61: According to the original plans the
- Page 62 and 63: values. According to Rybicki, as so
- Page 64 and 65: AWS should fight against all types
- Page 66 and 67: 2001 parliamentary election, howeve
- Page 68 and 69: and workers voted ZChN. At the 1993
- Page 70 and 71: The League has been considered as a
- Page 72 and 73: establishment like than LPR’s. Th
- Page 74 and 75: jobs in rural areas, especially sma
- Page 76 and 77: industrial policy. According to the
- Page 80 and 81: democrats, thereby locating itself
- Page 82 and 83: To conclude, the Freedom Union (UW)
- Page 84 and 85: Polish middle class. Thus, in Janua
- Page 86 and 87: such as KSCM and KSS in The Czech R
- Page 88 and 89: The SLD leaders were mainly recruit
- Page 90 and 91: the falling popular support for pri
- Page 92 and 93: innovation was formation of the pol
- Page 94 and 95: place after talks with each applica
- Page 96 and 97: Has the Left any freedom of manoeuv
- Page 98 and 99: medicine, changes in the labour cod
- Page 100 and 101: The Labour Union (UP), Democratic U
- Page 102: Nevertheless, before that had taken