Democratic Left Alliance
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| Democratic Left Alliance | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Wojciech Olejniczak |
| Founded | 15 April 1999 |
| Headquarters | ul. Rozbrat 44 A, 00-419 Warsaw |
| Political ideology | Social democracy |
| International affiliation | Socialist International |
| Website | http://www.sld.org.pl |
Democratic Left Alliance (Polish: Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD) is a Polish post-communist, social democratic political party. A coalition of parties used this name from 1991 to 1999. It was formally established as a single party on April 15, 1999.
Most of the members who established the party in 1999 had previously been members of SdRP (Socjaldemokracja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej - Social Democrats of the Republic of Poland). SdRP and some other socialist and social democratic parties had formed the original Alliance of the Democratic Left as a left-wing coalition just prior to the nation's first free elections in 1991. At the time, the coalition's membership drew mostly from the Polish communist, the Polish United Workers Party, which ruled the People's Republic of Poland with Soviet support before 1989. The coalition was formed also thanks to a financial aid from Soviet Union. An alliance between the SLD and the Polish Peasant Party ruled Poland in the years 1993–1997.
Contents |
[edit] History
| Timeline of Polish socialist/social-democratic parties after 1986 |
| • Polish Socialist Party /PPS (1987 - ) • Polish Social Democratic Union /PUS (1990 - 1992) • Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland / SdRP (1990 - 1999) • Democratic-Social Movement /RDS (1991 - 1993) • Labour Union /UP (1992 - ) • Self-Defense (1993 - ) • Alliance of the Democratic Left /SLD (1999 - ) • REASON of Polish Left /RACJA PL (2002 - ) • Social Democratic Party of Poland/SDPL (2004 - ) • Union of the Left /UL (2004 - ) |
In 1999 the coalition became a party, but lost some members. Today SLD is a pro-European (pro-EU) social democratic party.
The president of SLD is former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Wojciech Olejniczak, elected on May 29, 2005. His predecessor was Józef Oleksy. Oleksy's predecessor was Krzysztof Janik, and Janik's predecessor was Leszek Miller, the Prime Minister of Poland from 2001 to 2004. The former president of SLD, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, became President of Poland in December 1995.
In the 2001 elections SLD formed a coalition with Unia Pracy (UP, Labor Union) and gained 200 (of 460) seats in the Sejm (the lower house) and 75 (of 100) in the Senate. After the elections, the coalition was joined by Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (the Polish Peasants' Party) in forming a government. In March 2003 PSL left the coalition. By 2004 the support for SLD in the polls had dropped from about 30% to just below 10%, and several high ranking party members had been accused of taking part in high profile political scandals by the mainstream press (most notably the Rywin affair).
On March 6, 2004 Leszek Miller resigned as party leader and was replaced by Krzysztof Janik. On March 26 the Diet speaker Marek Borowski, together with other high-ranking SLD officials, announced the creation of a new left-wing party, the Polish Social Democrats (Socjaldemokracja Polska). On the next day, Leszek Miller announced he would step down as prime minister on May 2, the day after Poland joins the European Union. He proceeded to do so.
In the 2004 to the European Parliament, the party received 9% of the votes, giving it 5 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament, as part of the Party of European Socialists.
In the elections to the Sejm on September 25, 2005, the Democratic Left Alliance gained only 11.3% of the vote. This gave the party 55 seats, barely a quarter of what it had had prior to the election. It has also lost all of its Senators.
[edit] Delegalization of SLD
Delegalization of SLD: Proposals for delegalization of Polish former communist party called Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) is a recurrent issue in Polish politics in 1990s and 2000s.
- delegalization of SLD was first proposed in 1995 by Unia Wolności spokesman Andrzej Potocki at the height of so called "afera Oleksego", where prime minister from SLD Józef Oleksy was implied to have connections with Soviet secret service,
- the proposal was regularly reiterated in later years, most notably by PiS chairman and current Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński in 2004,
- also by LPR chairman and minister of education Roman Giertych in 2006.
[edit] Rationale
The most commonly given grounds for the delegalization are alleged widespread connections of prominent members of SLD with Soviet secret service - this has not been proven to any member of SLD, however:
- three SLD members were accused and found guilty of corruption and giving away secret information about planned Polish police actions against organized criminals.
- many of them are members or collaborators of former communist regime repression organs like militsiya, Służba Bezpieczeństwa and Urząd Bezpieczeństwa.
- as a legal and economical successor of PZPR and its properties - SLD is the organisation responsible by right for crimes of the former regime, that have not been judged yet.
[edit] Legal grounds
The rules for delegalization of a party are given by the Constitution of Poland. Article 13 of the Constitution specifically says that:
- Political parties and other organizations whose programmes are based upon totalitarian methods and the modes of activity of Nazism, fascism and communism, as well as those whose programmes or activities sanction racial or national hatred, the application of violence for the purpose of obtaining power or to influence the State policy, or provide for the secrecy of their own structure or membership, shall be prohibited.
[edit] Members of the Previous Polish Parliament (Sejm) (2001-2005)
MP, constituency
- Jan Antochowski, Elbląg
- Tadeusz Badach, Chełm
- Magdalena Banaś, Wałbrzych
- Renata Basta, Bydgoszcz
- Krzysztof Baszczyński, Łódź
- Barbara Blida, Katowice
- Bogdan Błaszczyk, Koszalin
- Anita Błochowiak, Sieradz
- Elżbieta Bolek, Sosnowiec
- Andrzej Brachmański, Gorzów Wielkopolski - Zielona Góra
- Bogdan Bujak, Piotrków Trybunalski
- Jan Chojnacki, Gliwice
- Kazimierz Chrzanowski, Kraków
- Danuta Ciborowska, Elbląg
- Grażyna Ciemniak, Bydgoszcz
- Wiesław Ciesielski, Rzeszów
- Bronisław Cieślak, Kraków
- Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Białystok
- Jerzy Czepułkowski, Olsztyn
- Aleksander Czuż, Białystok
- Eugeniusz Czykwin, Białystok
- Jakub Derech-Krzycki, Gorzów Wielkopolski - Zielona Góra
- Bogdan Derwich, Toruń
- Wojciech Długoborski, Szczecin
- Wojciech Domaradzki, Krosno
- Marek Dyduch, Wałbrzych
- Jerzy Dziewulski, Olsztyn
- Anna Filek, Kraków
- Witold Firak, Krosno
- Sebastian Florek, Olsztyn
- Piotr Gadzinowski, Warszawa
- Maria Gajecka-Bożek, Sosnowiec
- Andrzej Gawłowski, Piła
- Witold Gintowt-Dziewałtowski, Elbląg
- Anna Górna-Kubacka, Poznań
- Danuta Grabowska, Radom
- Aleksandra Gramała, Katowice
- Joanna Grobel-Proszowska, Rzeszów
- Zofia Grzebisz-Nowicka, Kielce
- Jerzy Hausner, Kraków
- Ryszard Hayn, Kalisz
- Krystyna Herman, Wałbrzych
- Barbara Hyla-Makowska, Bydgoszcz
- Tadeusz Iwiński, Olsztyn
- Aleksandra Jakubowska, Opole
- Ewa Janik, Gliwice
- Ewa Maria Janik, Częstochowa
- Krzysztof Janik, Tarnów - parliamentary caucus chairman
- Elżbieta Jankowska, Łódź
- Zbigniew Janowski, Chełm
- Jerzy Jaskiernia, Kielce - former parliamentary caucus chairman
- Teresa Jasztal, Wrocław
- Mieczysław Jedoń, Wałbrzych
- Wiesław Jędrusik, Sosnowiec
- Tadeusz Kaleniecki, Krosno
- Ryszard Kalisz, Warszawa
- Zbigniew Kaniewski, Łódź
- Marian Kawa, Krosno
- Bożena Kizińska, Kielce
- Jan Klimek, Katowice
- Jan Knapik, Nowy Sącz
- Jan Kochanowski, Gorzów Wielkopolski - Zielona Góra
- Stanisław Kopeć, Szczecin
- Jacek Kowalik, Gdynia
- Bronisława Kowalska, Legnica
- Janusz Krasoń, Wrocław
- Zbigniew Krutczenko, Siedlce
- Grzegorz Kurczuk, Lublin
- Stanisław Kurpiewski, Siedlce
- Krystian Łuczak, Toruń
- Aleksandra Łuszczyńska, Płock
- Krystyna Łybacka, Poznań
- Ryszard Maraszek, Legnica
- Adam Markiewicz, Wałbrzych
- Wacław Martyniuk, Gliwice
- Czesław Marzec, Szczecin
- Aldona Michalak, Płock
- Jerzy Michalski, Chełm
- Leszek Miller, Łódź
- Tadeusz Motowidło, Rybnik
- Alicja Murynowicz, Łódź
- Tadeusz Myler, Kalisz
- Andrzej Namysło, Opole
- Grzegorz Napieralski, Szczecin
- Lech Nikolski, Chełm
- Irena Nowacka, Sieradz
- Joanna Nowiak, Poznań
- Józef Nowicki, Konin
- Wiesław Okoński, Gliwice
- Wojciech Olejniczak, Sieradz
- Józef Oleksy, Siedlce
- Wiktor Osik, Lublin
- Małgorzata Ostrowska, Gdańsk
- Andrzej Otręba, Wrocław
- Andrzej Pęczak, Sieradz
- Jacek Piechota, Szczecin
- Katarzyna Piekarska, Warszawa
- Elżbieta Piela-Mielczarek, Szczecin
- Kazimierz Pietrzyk, Opole
- Grażyna Pijanowska, Piła
- Józef Pilarczyk, Opole
- Andrzej Piłat, Płock
- Stanisław Piosik, Piła
- Zbigniew Podraza, Sosnowiec
- Olgierd Poniźnik, Legnica
- Franciszek Potulski, Gdańsk
- Stanisława Prządka, Siedlce
- Władysław Rak, Legnica
- Zygmunt Ratman, Częstochowa
- Andrzej Różański, Gdynia
- Stanisław Rydzoń, Chrzanów
- Kazimierz Sas, Nowy Sącz
- Joanna Senyszyn, Gdynia
- Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, Płock
- Jan Sieńko, Gdynia
- Szczepan Skomra, Chełm
- Andrzej Skrzyński, Tarnów
- Robert Smoleń, Gorzów Wielkopolski - Zielona Góra
- Zbigniew Sobotka, Piotrków Trybunalski
- Adam Sosnowski, Kielce
- Edmund Stachowicz, Gdańsk
- Stanisław Stec, Piła
- Marian Stępień, Katowice
- Władysław Stępień, Rzeszów
- Benedykt Suchecki, Płock
- Andrzej Szarawarski, Sosnowiec
- Jerzy Szmajdziński, Legnica
- Elżbieta Szparaga, Toruń
- Jerzy Szteliga, Opole
- Jan Szwarc, Bielsko-Biała
- Jan Szymański, Wrocław
- Zygmunt Jerzy Szymański, Lublin
- Renata Szynalska, Kalisz
- Czesław Śleziak, Katowice
- Halina Talaga, Chrzanów
- Michał Tober, Warszawa
- Tadeusz Tomaszewski, Konin
- Ryszard Tomczyk, Koszalin
- Bogusława Towalewska, Koszalin
- Grzegorz Tuderek, Rzeszów
- Michał Turkiewicz, Legnica
- Andrzej Umiński, Elbląg
- Marek Wagner, Kalisz
- Jerzy Wenderlich, Toruń
- Marek Widuch, Gliwice
- Marek Wikiński, Radom
- Marcin Wnuk, Bydgoszcz
- Franciszek Wołowicz, Gorzów Wielkopolski - Zielona Góra
- Bogusław Wontor, Gorzów Wielkopolski - Zielona Góra
- Grzegorz Woźny, Kalisz
- Zbyszek Zaborowski, Rybnik
- Andrzej Zając, Rybnik
- Kazimierz Zarzycki, Bielsko-Biała
- Jan Zaworski, Białystok
- Ryszard Zbrzyzny, Legnica
- Jacek Zdrojewski, Warszawa
- Janusz Zemke, Bydgoszcz
[edit] Former SLD MPs
- Ryszard Chodynicki, Toruń, now FKP
- Roman Jagieliński, Piotrków Trybunalski, now FKP
- Andrzej Jagiełło, Kielce, now FKP
- Zbigniew Musiał, Piotrków Trybunalski, now FKP
- Edward Brzostowski, Rzeszów: 2001-2002
- Tadeusz Ferenc, Rzeszów: 2001-2002
- Ryszard Ulicki, Koszalin - do 2003, elected to KRRiT
[edit] External links
- Official site
- "By invitation" - article about freedom of press in Poland and changing the name of PZPR to SLD - as a way of escape from danger of delegalization of a regime party. 5 April 1998.
- The Warsaw Voice Article. 24 November 2004.
- in Polish: Can the Polish mafia be delegalized? - article at hotnews.pl. 17 June 2006.
