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

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democrats, thereby locating itself in the political middle with a big coalition potential, at least aslong as the majority in the Sejmen belonged to the parties with a background in the Solidaritymovement.In June 1990 Democratic Union’s (UD) the founding congress took place in Warszawa, at whichoccasion the ongoing “wars in the top” inside the Solidarity movement between the Walesa wing”and the “Mazowiecki wing” was clearly reflected. Nevertheless, questions about the readiness tocooperate closely with the trade union Solidarity and president Lech Walesa was not evendiscussed. Only one delegate raised the question about the need of “speeding up” of the fightagainst the old system and lustration of former communists and their agents, but according to theminutes from the meetings the speech was met by ironical remarks that the speaker might havemistaked the UD-congress for the congress of the Center Alliance (PC), another Solidarity faction 68 .The support of the round table negotiations and the aim to “cross out” the time before 1989 ( “grubakreska”), outlined by prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, was maintained.The Liberal-Democratic Congress (KL-D), the Freedom Unions (UW) other leg, originated in theliberal groups in Gdansk in the 1980’s. In the first elected contractual parliament the Liberal-Democratic Club (KL-D) was established as an independent party with a clear neoliberal profile.KL-D belonged to those parties established by an interplay between a faction in the parliament andliberal groups outside the parliament, especially among intellectuals in the bigger towns. In otherwords, the party was at the same time formed externally and internally. The power of penetrationwas relatively weak, even among Polish intellectuals living in the big towns. Thus the voter appealwas too narrow. In spite of a active “'American” type election campaign and financial support fromoutside the party did not pass the threshold requirements and lost its representation in parliament atthe 1993-election.KL-D’s election defeat gave rise to plans about a merger of the Democratic Union (UD) and theLiberal-Democratic Congress (KL-D). However, the merger of the two parties did not give the newFreedom Union (UW) a broader electoral basis, because of the distinct liberal profile of the partychairman Leszek Balcerowicz. The new Freedom Union (UW) strived to combine liberal ideologywith pragmatism, political moral with political realities and social ethics, and at least until year2000 Solidarity type of “wars in the top” camp were avoided. In the first ten years after 1989ROAD, UD and UW had a great impact on Polish politics, for since the democratic break-throughROAD, UD and UW have produced no less than three prime ministers, Tadeusz Mazowiecki,Krzysztof Bielecki and Hanna Suchocka and, not to forget, minister of finance, LeszekBalcerowicz. Despite of that, at the 1995 presidential election the candidate of UD, Jacek Kuron,who according to the opinion polls was one of the most popular politicians in Poland, gained only 9pct. of the votes.From start the Freedom Union (UW) was composed of different non-veto political platforms. Thosegroups did not, like inside AWS, and behave like veto-groups, rather as policy-formulating fractionsor fractions of the band-wagon type. The division inside UW goes back to the merger between UDand KL-D, dseparating social liberals from “staunch” neo-liberals 69 . Other observers distinguishbetween “ideologists” (“ideowców”), the “old hyenas” “(stare hieny”) and the “young wolves”. Inother words, the Freedom Union (UW) included a group that supported Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s68 See minutes from the DU founding congress in Tygodnik Solidarnosc 17 May, 1991:8, ”Wezmy slub, jakos tobedzie”.69 Jan Król, ”Polityka Arystotelesa”, Wprost, 24 January, 1999:24-25.80
“soft social liberal line and another group that supported Leszek Balcerowicz’ neoliberal policyline.At he 1997 election did surprisingly well, gaing between 10 and 14 pct. of the votes, supported byan increase in the number of party members from 9.500 to 23.000. At all elections the party didespecially well in the bigger towns and among intellectuals. Opposite, the share of the votes wasalmost extremely low in the rural areas. The Freedom Union (UW) aimed to establish a pro-reformalliance consisting of those groups in society, which had made a good showing socially andtherefore were satisfied with their new social position. Here we were mostly dealing with welleducated, people working in the cultural sector, entrepreneurs and well off people in the biggertowns. The majority of those voting on the party has supported the establishment of new enterprisesand the introduction of market reforms and has been strongly in favour of the membership of theEU.After the 1997 election UW obtained a rather strong position in parliament. The UW party leaderLeszek Balcerowicz was nominated as minister of finance and vice-prime minister in the AWS-UWmajority government. Economic policy subjects captured a central position during the Balcerowiczleadership. The party has literally considered as the “defender of the budget”. Not without reason,the party was accused of “neoliberal boschevism”, especially after the merger of Democratic Union(UD) and the Liberal Congress (KL-D). The internal decision making process was distinctly topdownwith great power to the party leader (Balcerowicz). In January 1997, shortly before thenational election seven MP’s from the Freedom Union (UW) left the party and joined the liberalwing (SKL) of Election Alliance Solidarity (AWS). According to the opinion polls, because of thedefections the party lost some electoral support, but the party overcame the “mini-crisis” and didsurprisingly well at the election later in 1997. Before that happened, the defeat of the socialliberalpresidential candidate Jacek Kuron at the 1995 presidential election had given the neoliberal wingof the party even more impetus. Thus, after the 1997 election Balcerowicz presented a new“Balcerowic plan II” for speeding up the transformation of Polish economy toward market economyand adaption to the EU.The loss of votes at the regional and municipial elections in 1998 gave raise to some “soulsearching”.Many critisized that Balcerowicz was not only the party chairman, but at the same timealso Minister of Finance and vice-Prime Minister. Furthermore, to many Balcerowicz behaved tooarrogant and authoritarian. He did not like party discussions, tended to be impatient, preferred topdowndecision making, and was in general against sharing political power with other persons in theparty 70 .As noted above, the government cooperation between AWS and Freedom Union (UW) did not lastthe whole election period. In the beginning of 2000 the disagreements inside the government wasgrowing, e.g. as regards the introduction and later implementation of the four “big reforms” ofPolish society. Thus, during the governmental crisis in the winther 1999-2000 the UW leadersdemanded that AWS withdraw financially expensive proposal in parliament and its “syndicalistist”proposal about privatisation (“powszechny uwlaszczenie”). Furthermore, UW rejected proposalsput forward by AWS increase in import duties on foodstuffs, forbid retail trade on Sundays andshorten the working week to 40 hours over two years. In addition, AWS insisted to bring the illprepared reforms of the public administration and in the pension systems, education and health theend.70 Underlined e.g. by Waldemar Kuczynski in interview in the weekly Wprost no 42, 16 october, 1999:20-22.81
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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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Page 66 and 67: 2001 parliamentary election, howeve
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