Polish People's Party
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| Polish People's Party | |
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| Leader | Waldemar Pawlak |
| Founded | 5 May 1990 |
| Headquarters | ul. Grzybowska 4, 00-131 Warsaw |
| Political ideology | agrarianism |
| International affiliation | Christian Democrat International |
| Website | http://www.psl.pl |
| Poland |
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The Polish People's Party (Polish: Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, also known in English as Polish Peasant Party) is a political party in Poland. The party's name traces its tradition to an agrarian political party in Austro-Hungarian controlled Galicia, which sent MPs to the parliament in Vienna.
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[edit] History
After Poland regained independence with the end of the First World War in 1918, the party merged with agrarian groups from territories previously occupied by Imperial Russia and formed the first PSL led by Wincenty Witos, which was one of the most important political parties in the Second Polish Republic, until it was removed by the Sanacja (see also People's Party). During that time there were two parties using the term PSL: Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe Piast and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe Wyzwolenie. During World War II, PSL took part in forming the Polish government in exile and organising. After the war the leader of PSL, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, returned to Soviet occupied Poland, hoping to recreate the party structures and create anti-communist opposition. To prevent that from happening the communists formed a puppet PSL-Piast and, after forging an important referendum, forced the real PSL to unite with it, forming United People's Party, a satellite of the communist party.
Around the time of the fall of communism several PSL's were recreated: Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe - Porozumienie Ludowe, Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe - Odrodzenie and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (Wilanów faction). In 1989 they merged into the PSL and took part in forming the first postwar noncommunist government in Poland along with Solidarity and in 1990 it changed its name to PSL. It has retained its left-wing views and has repeatedly entered coalition with the postcommunist Democratic Left Alliance.
[edit] Present-day PSL
In the last parliamentary elections the party received 7% of votes giving it 25 seats in the Sejm and 2 seats in the Senate. In the 2001 parliamentary elections PSL received 9% of votes and formed a coalition with Democratic Left Alliance, which later broke. After this parting, PSL moved towards more centrist policies. The party ran in the 2004 European Parliament election as part of the European People's Party and received 6% of the vote, giving it 4 of 54 Polish seats in the European Parliament.
[edit] Leaders
- Jarosław Kalinowski (vice prime minister and minister of agriculture from 2001 to 2003) He was the leader of the PSL from 1997 to 2004.
- Waldemar Pawlak (prime minister in 1992 and from 1993 to 1995; current leader of the party).
- Janusz Wojciechowski former leader of the party
[edit] Chairmen
- Roman Bartoszcze 1990 - June 1991
- Waldemar Pawlak 1991 - 1997
- Jarosław Kalinowski 1997 - 2004
- Janusz Wojciechowski 2004 - 2005
- Waldemar Pawlak 2005 - actually
[edit] Members of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) (2001-2005)
- Tadeusz Balcerowski, Radom
- Edmund Borawski, Białystok
- Arkadiusz Bratkowski, Chełm
- Leszek Bugaj, Kielce
- Bolesław Bujak, Rzeszów
- Jan Bury, Rzeszów
- Czesław Cieślak, Konin
- Zbigniew Deptuła, Siedlce
- Bronisław Dutka, Nowy Sącz
- Maria Dziuba, Radom
- Tadeusz Gajda, Sieradz
- Józef Gruszka, Kalisz - chairman of the PKN Orlen investigation commission
- Andrzej Grzyb, Kalisz
- Stanisław Kalemba, Piła
- Jarosław Kalinowski, Siedlce - former party chairman
- Stanisław Kalinowski, Gdynia
- Mieczysław Kasprzak, Krosno
- Eugeniusz Kłopotek, Bydgoszcz
- Zbigniew Komorowski, Płock
- Jan Kubik, Tarnów
- Józef Mioduszewski, Białystok
- Stefan Nowak, Kraków
- Krystyna Ozga, Piotrków Trybunalski
- Mirosław Pawlak, Kielce
- Waldemar Pawlak, Płock
- Janusz Piechociński, Warsaw
- Tadeusz Polański, Lublin
- Tadeusz Samborski, Legnica
- Marek Sawicki, Siedlce
- Zbigniew Sosnowski, Toruń
- Ryszard Stanibula, Chełm
- Franciszek Stefaniuk, Chełm
- Józef Szczepańczyk, Kielce
- Leszek Świętochowski, Lublin
- Marian Wesołowski, Lublin
- Wiesław Woda, Tarnów
- Wojciech Zarzycki, Sieradz
- Józef Zych, Gorzów Wielkopolski - Zielona Góra
- Stanisław Żelichowski, Elbląg
[edit] Former MPs from PSL
[edit] Members of the Polish Senate
[edit] Members of European Parliament
PSL is a member party of the European People's Party, however three of its four MEPs have switched their parliamentary group to Union for a Europe of Nations in December 2005. This move is not accepted by the party's general committee.
[edit] PSL MEP in the EPP-ED group
- Czesław Siekierski, agricultural aconomist, former vice-minister of agriculture
[edit] PSL MEPs in the UEN group
- Zbigniew Kuźmiuk, politician, chairman of PSL parliamentary caucus
- Zdzisław Podkański, historian and politician, vice-chairman of PSL, former vice-minister of culture
- Janusz Wojciechowski, lawyer and politician, chairman of PSL since March 2004
