Sejm of the Republic of Poland Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej | |
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| 10th term | |
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| Type | |
| Type | of thePolish parliament |
| History | |
| Founded |
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| Leadership | |
Monika Wielichowska,KO Dorota Niedziela,KO Piotr Zgorzelski,PSL Włodzimierz Czarzasty,NL Krzysztof Bosak,RN since 13 November 2023 | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 460 deputies(231 majority) |
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Political groups | Government (241) Supported by (2)
Opposition (217) |
| Committees | 31
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| Elections | |
| Open-listproportional representation in41 constituencies (5% nationalelection thresholda) | |
Last election | 15 October 2023 |
Next election | On or before 11 November 2027 |
| Meeting place | |
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| TheSejm and Senate Complex,Warsaw | |
| Website | |
| sejm | |
| Constitution | |
| The Constitution of the Republic of Poland | |
| Rules | |
| Resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of 30 July 1992. Rules of Procedure of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland with subsequent amendments | |
| Footnotes | |
| a 8% for coalitions, 0% for ethnic minority electoral committees | |
TheSejm (Polish:[sɛjm]ⓘ), officially known as theSejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish:Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is thelower house of thebicameralparliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of theThird Polish Republic since thetransition of government in 1989. Along with theupper house of parliament, theSenate, it forms the nationallegislature inPoland known asNational Assembly (Polish:Zgromadzenie Narodowe). The Sejm comprises 460deputies (singularposeł, rarelydeputowany), elected every four years byuniversal ballot. The Sejm is presided over by aspeaker, the "Marshal of the Sejm" (Marszałek Sejmu).
In theKingdom of Poland, the termSejm referred to the entire bicameral parliament, comprising the Chamber of Deputies (Izba Poselska) and the Senate, with the King presiding. It was thus a three-estate parliament. The 1573Henrician Articles strengthened the assembly's jurisdiction, making Poland aconstitutional electivemonarchy. Since theSecond Polish Republic (1918–1939),Sejm has referred only to the lower house of parliament.
During the existence of thePolish People's Republic, the Sejm, then aunicameral parliament, was thesupreme organ of state power in the country. It was the only government branch in the state, and per the principle ofunified power, all state organs were subservient to it. However, in practice it was widely considered to be arubber stamp legislature which existed to approve decisions made by the ruling party, thePolish United Workers' Party (PZPR) as a formality, and which had little or no real power of its own. After thecollapse of communism in 1989, theSejm was restored as a bicameral, democratically elected parliament under the current Third Polish Republic.
Sejm (an ancientProto-Lechitic word meaning "gathering" or "meeting") traces its roots to the King's Councils –wiece – which gained authority during the time ofPoland's fragmentation (1146-1295). The 1180 Sejm inŁęczyca (known as the 'First Polish parliament') was the most notable, in that it established laws constraining the power of the ruler. It forbade arbitrary sequestration of supplies in the countryside and takeover of bishopric lands after the death of a bishop. These earlySejms only convened at the King's behest.
Following the 1493Sejm inPiotrków, it became a regularly convening body, to which indirect elections were held every two years. Thebicameral system was also established; theSejm then comprised two chambers: theSenat (Senate) of 81 bishops andother dignitaries; and the Chamber of Deputies, made up of 54 envoys elected by smaller localsejmik (assemblies of landed nobility) in each of the Kingdom's provinces. At the time, Poland's nobility, which accounted for around 10% of the state's population (then the highest amount in Europe), was becoming particularly influential, and with the eventual development of theGolden Liberty, theSejm's powers increased dramatically.[1]
Over time, the envoys in thelower chamber grew in number and power as they pressed the king for more privileges. TheSejm eventually became even more active in supporting the goals of the privileged classes when the King ordered that the landed nobility and their estates (peasants) be drafted intomilitary service.
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TheUnion of Lublin in 1569, united theKingdom of Poland and theGrand Duchy of Lithuania as one single state, thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and thus theSejm was supplemented with new envoys from among theLithuanian nobility. The Commonwealth ensured that the state of affairs surrounding the three-estates system continued, with theSejm, Senate and King forming the estates and supreme deliberating body of the state. In the first few decades of the 16th century, the Senate had established its precedence over theSejm; however, from the mid-1500s onwards, theSejm became a very powerful representative body of theszlachta ("middle nobility"). Its chambers reserved the final decisions in legislation, taxation,budget, andtreasury matters (including military funding),foreign policy, and theconfirment of nobility.
The 1573Warsaw Confederation saw the nobles of theSejm officially sanction and guaranteereligious tolerance in Commonwealth territory, ensuring a refuge for those fleeing the ongoingReformation andCounter-Reformation wars in Europe.
Until the end of the 16th century,unanimity was not required, and themajority-voting process was the most commonly used system for voting. Later, with the rise of thePolish magnates and their increasing power, the unanimity principle was re-introduced with the institution of the nobility's right ofliberum veto (Latin: "freeveto"). Additionally, if the envoys were unable to reach a unanimous decision within six weeks (the time limit of a single session), deliberations were declared void and all previous acts passed by thatSejm were annulled. From the mid-17th century onward, any objection to aSejm resolution, by either an envoy or a senator, automatically caused the rejection of other, previously approved resolutions. This was because all resolutions passed by a given session of theSejm formed a whole resolution, and, as such, was published as the annual "constituent act" of theSejm, e.g. the "Anno Domini 1667" act. In the 16th century, no single person or small group dared to hold up proceedings, but, from the second half of the 17th century, theliberum veto was used to virtually paralyze theSejm, and brought the Commonwealth to the brink of collapse.
Theliberum veto was abolished with the adoption of theConstitution of 3 May 1791, a piece of legislation which was passed as the "Government Act", and for which theSejm requiredfour years to propagate and adopt. The constitution's acceptance, and the possible long-term consequences it may have had, is arguably the reason that the powers ofHabsburg Austria,Russia andPrussia then decided topartition the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, thus putting an end to over 300 years of Polish parliamentary continuity. It is estimated that between 1493 and 1793, aSejm was held 240 times, the total debate-time sum of which was 44 years.[1]
After the fall of theDuchy of Warsaw, which existed as aNapoleonicclient state between 1807 and 1815, and its short-livedSejm of the Duchy of Warsaw, theSejm of Congress Poland was established inCongress Poland of the Russian Empire; it was composed of the king (the Russian emperor), the upper house (Senate), and the lower house (Chamber of Deputies). Overall, during the period from 1795 until the re-establishment of Poland's sovereignty in 1918, little power was actually held by any Polish legislative body and the occupying powers of Russia, Prussia (later unitedGermany) and Austria propagated legislation for their own respective formerly-Polish territories at a national level.[1]
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The Chamber of Deputies, despite its name, consisted not only of 77 envoys (sent by local assemblies) from the hereditary nobility, but also of 51deputies, elected by the non-noble population. All deputies were covered byParliamentary immunity, with each individual serving for a term of office of six years, with third of the deputies being elected every two years. Candidates for deputy had to be able toread and write, and have a certain amount of wealth. The legal voting age was 21, except for those citizens serving in the military, the personnel of which were not allowed to vote. Parliamentary sessions were initially convened every two years, and lasted for (at least) 30 days. However, after many clashes between liberal deputies and conservative government officials, sessions were later called only four times (1818, 1820, 1826, and 1830, with the last two sessions being secret). TheSejm had the right to call for votes oncivil andadministrative legal issues, and, with permission from the king, it could also vote on matters related to thefiscal policy and the military. It had the right to exercise control over government officials, and to filepetitions. The 64-member Senate on the other hand, was composed ofvoivodes andkasztelans (both types of provincial governors), Russian envoys, diplomats or princes, and nine bishops. It acted as the Parliamentary Court, had the right to control "citizens' books", and had similarlegislative rights as did the Chamber of Deputies.[1]
In theFree City of Cracow (1815–1846), a unicameral Assembly of Representatives was established, and from 1827, a unicameralprovincialsejm existed in theGrand Duchy of Poznań. Poles were elected to and represented the majority in both of these legislatures; however, they were largely powerless institutions and exercised only very limited power. After numerous failures in securing legislative sovereignty in the early 19th century, many Poles simply gave up trying to attain a degree of independence from their foreign master-states. In theAustrian partition, a relatively powerlessSejm of the Estates operated until the time of theSpring of Nations. After this, in the mid to late 19th century, only in autonomousGalicia (1861–1914) was there a unicameral and functional NationalSejm, theSejm of the Land. It is recognised today as having played a major and overwhelming positive role in the development of Polish national institutions.
In the second half of the 19th century, Poles were able to become members of the parliaments of Austria, Prussia and Russia, where they formed Polish Clubs. Deputies of Polish nationality were elected to the PrussianLandtag from 1848, and then to the German Empire'sReichstag from 1871. Polish Deputies were members of the Austrian State Council (from 1867), and from 1906 were also elected to the Russian Imperial StateDuma (lower chamber) and to the State Council (upper chamber).[1]
After theFirst World War and re-establishment of Polish independence, the convocation of parliament, under the democratic electoral law of 1918, became an enduring symbol of the new state's wish to demonstrate and establish continuity with the 300-year Polish parliamentary traditions established before the time of the partitions. Maciej Rataj emphatically paid tribute to this with the phrase: "There is Poland there, and so is theSejm".
During theinterwar period of Poland's independence, the firstLegislativeSejm of 1919, a Constituent Assembly, passed theSmall Constitution of 1919, which introduced aparliamentary republic and proclaimed the principle of theSejm'ssovereignty. This was then strengthened, in 1921, by theMarch Constitution, one of the most democratic European constitutions enacted after the end of World War I. The constitution established a political system which was based onMontesquieu's doctrine of separation of powers, and which restored the bicameralSejm consisting of a chamber of deputies (to which alone the name of "Sejm" was from then on applied) and the Senate. In 1919,Roza Pomerantz-Meltzer, a member of theZionist party, became the first woman ever elected to theSejm.[2][3]
The legal content of the March Constitution allowed forSejm supremacy in the system of state institutions at the expense of the executive powers, thus creating a parliamentary republic out of the Polish state. An attempt to strengthen executive powers in 1926 (through the August Amendment) proved too limited and largely failed in helping avoid legislative grid-lock which had ensued as a result of too-great parliamentary power in a state which had numerous diametrically-opposed political parties sitting in its legislature. In 1935, the parliamentary republic was weakened further when, by way of,Józef Piłsudski'sMay Coup, the president was forced to sign theApril Constitution of 1935, an act through which the head of state assumed the dominant position in legislating for the state and the Senate increased its power at the expense of theSejm.
On 2 September 1939, theSejm held its final pre-war session, during which it declared Poland's readiness to defend itself against invading German forces. On 2 November 1939, the President dissolved theSejm and the Senate, which were then, according to plan, to resume their activity within two months after the end of the Second World War; this, however, never happened. During wartime, the National Council (1939–1945) was established to represent the legislature as part of thePolish Government in Exile. Meanwhile, inNazi-occupied Poland, the Council of National Unity was set up; this body functioned from 1944 to 1945 as the parliament of thePolish Underground State. With the cessation of hostilities in 1945, and subsequent rise to power of the Communist-backedProvisional Government of National Unity, theSecond Polish Republic legally ceased to exist.[1]
TheSejm in thePolish People's Republic had 460 deputies throughout most of its history. At first, this number was declared to represent one deputy per 60,000 citizens (425 were elected in 1952), but, in 1960, as the population grew, the declaration was changed: The constitution then stated that the deputies were representativeof the people and could be recalledby the people, but this article was never used, and, instead of the "five-point electoral law", a non-proportional, "four-point" version was used. Legislation was passed with majority voting.
Under the1952 Constitution, the Sejm was defined as "the highest organ of State authority" in Poland, as well as "the highest spokesman of the will of the people in town and country." On paper, it was vested with great lawmaking and oversight powers. For instance, it was empowered with control over "the functioning of other organs of State authority and administration," and ministers were required to answer questions posed by deputies within seven days.[4] In practice, it did little more than rubber-stamp decisions already made by the CommunistPolish United Workers Party and its executive bodies.[5] This was standard practice in nearly all Communist regimes due to the principle ofdemocratic centralism.
TheSejm voted on the budget and on the periodicnational plans that were a fixture of communist economies. TheSejm deliberated in sessions that were ordered to convene by theState Council.
TheSejm also chose aPrezydium ("presiding body") from among its members. ThePrezydium was headed by the speaker, orMarshal, who was always a member of theUnited People's Party. In its preliminary session, theSejm also nominated thePrime Minister, theCouncil of Ministers of Poland, and members of the State Council. It also chose many other government officials, including the head of theSupreme Chamber of Control and members of theState Tribunal and theConstitutional Tribunal, as well as theOmbudsman (the last three bodies of which were created in the 1980s).
When the Sejm was not in session, the State Council had the power to issue decrees that had the force of law. However, those decrees had to be approved by the Sejm at its next session.[4] In practice, the principles of democratic centralism meant that such approval was only a formality.
TheSenate was abolished by thereferendum in 1946, after which theSejm became the sole legislative body in Poland.[1] Even though theSejm was largely subservient to the Communist party, one deputy, Romuald Bukowski (an independent) voted against the imposition of martial law in 1982.[6]
After theend of communism in 1989, the Senate was reinstated as the second house of a bicameralnational assembly, while theSejm remained the first house. TheSejm is now composed of 460 deputies elected byproportional representation every four years.
Between 7 and 20 deputies are elected from each constituency using thed'Hondt method (with one exception, in 2001, when theSainte-Laguë method was used), their number being proportional to their constituency's population. Additionally, a threshold is used, so that candidates are chosen only from parties that gained at least 5% of the nationwide vote (candidates from ethnic-minority parties are exempt from this threshold).[1]
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The Sejm has severalstanding committees with responsibilities in particular areas.[9][10][11]
Extraordinary committees
Investigative committees
| Affiliation | Deputies (Sejm) | Senators (Senate) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results of the 2023 election | As of 27 October 2025 | Change | Results of the 2023 election | As of 27 October 2025 | Change | ||
| Parliamentary clubs | |||||||
| Law and Justice | 194 | 188 |  6 | 34 | 34 |  | |
| Civic Coalition | 157 | 157 | | 41 | 43 |  2 | |
| Polish Coalition | 32 | 32 | | 11 | 12 | 1 | |
| Poland 2050 | 33 | 31 | 2 | ||||
| The Left | 26 | 21 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 1 | |
| Deputative clubs | |||||||
| Confederation | 18 | 16 | 2 | — | — | | |
| Deputative circles | |||||||
| Razem | — | 5 | 5 | — | — | | |
| Free Republicans | — | 4 | 4 | — | — | | |
| Confederation of the Polish Crown | — | 3 | 3 | — | — | | |
| Senatorial circles | |||||||
| New Poland | — | — | | — | 3 | 3 | |
| Independents | |||||||
| Independents | — | 3 | 3 | 5 | — | 5 | |
| Total members | 460 | 460 | | 100 | 100 | | |
| Vacant | — | 0 | | — | 0 | | |
| Total seats | 460 | 100 | |||||
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