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Solidarity Electoral Action Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność (Polish) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader |
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| Founded | 8 June 1996; 29 years ago (1996-06-08) |
| Dissolved | 18 October 2001 (2001-10-18)[1] |
| Preceded by | Solidarity Citizens' Committee Centre Civic Alliance Solidarity lists |
| Ideology | Christian democracy[2] Conservatism |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| Religion | Catholicism[3] |
| Colours | |
Solidarity Electoral Action (Polish:Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność, AWS) was a coalition of political parties inPoland, active from 1996 to 2001. AWS was the political arm of theSolidarity trade union, whose leaderLech Wałęsa (also an AWS member), wasPresident of Poland from 1990 to 1995, and the successor of the parties emerged from the fragmentation of theSolidarity Citizens' Committee.
The coalition was led byMarian Krzaklewski andJerzy Buzek, who wasPrime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001. Ideologically, it represented "an eclectic mix of socially conservative trade union-oriented corporatism, Christian Democracy, economically interventionist and liberal forms of Catholic nationalism and less overtly Church-inspired strands of liberal-conservatism";[4] its program was also described as a combination of "social conservatism and state interventionism".[5]
Law and Justice andCivic Platform, the two dominant Polish political parties of today, had their roots in AWS.
On June 8, 1996, at the initiative of the NSZZ "Solidarność" trade union, the "Solidarność" Electoral Action was established as a coalition of over 30Christian-democratic,conservative andliberal political parties, mostly from theSolidarity Citizens' Committee, theSolidarity trade union's political wing. Among them, there were theChristian National Union, theParty of Christian Democrats, theCentre Agreement, theConservative People's Party (formed in January 1997), thePeasants' Agreement, theMovement for the Republic (until 1997), theNonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms (until 1997) and theConfederation of Independent Poland (until 1998 and again since 2001). AWS's founding leader wasMarian Krzaklewski, who was also the leader of the Solidarity trade union, having succeeded toLech Wałęsa in 1991. The formation of the AWS was a response to public expectations for a broad social movement that would unite the Polish right wing. The AWS was composed of right-wing parties, trade unions, associations, and non-governmental organizations originating from the Solidarity movement.[6]
In the1997 parliamentary election, the AWS obtained 33.8% of the vote, 201 members of theSejm and 51 of theSenate. After the election, AWS' memberJerzy Buzek formed acoalition government, which comprised also the liberalFreedom Union.
In December 1997, a new party,Social Movement (RS), was formed. It was joined by Krzaklewski, Buzek and several other non-party independents recommended by the Solidarity trade union and/or former members of the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Consequently, the Social Movement soon became the largest faction within the coalition. The other factions were those associated with the Christian National Union, the Party of Christian Democrats and the Conservative People's Party.[7] In 1998, the Confederation of Independent Poland and a group that would form thePolish Agreement were excluded from the coalition.[8] From these groups, theLeague of Polish Families would later be formed. In 1999, the Party of Christian Democrats, the Centre Agreement and the Movement for the Republic merged into thePolish Christian Democratic Agreement.
Reforms relating to domestic affairs, the entry toNATO in 1999 and the accession process to theEuropean Union led to conflicts within the coalition.
In June 2000, the Freedom Union broke its alliance with the AWS[9] and Buzek continued to govern at the head of a minority government.
In the2000 presidential election, Krzaklewski was AWS' official candidate and won 15.6% of the vote, but a large chunk of the coalition, especially activists from the more liberal Conservative People's Party, had supported the independent candidateAndrzej Olechowski,[10] who won 17.3% of the vote. As a result,Aleksander Kwaśniewski of the post-communistDemocratic Left Alliance was elected president; Krzaklewski resigned from his position of AWS leader in December 2000 and was replaced by Buzek in January 2001.[9]
Also in January 2001, AWS became a federation comprising the Solidarity trade union, the Social Movement, the Christian National Union, the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement and the Conservative People's Party. However, in March 2001 the Conservative People's Party withdrew from the AWS and most of it would later joinCivic Platform, which had been established in January 2001 by Olechowski, AWS splinterMaciej Płażyński and Freedom Union'sDonald Tusk. More importantly, in May the Solidarity trade union withdrew too.[9] In June most of the structure of theCentre Agreement, which was originally a member of the AWS, along with right-wing dissidents from other AWS constituent parties formedLaw and Justice, under the leadership ofJarosław Kaczyński andLech Kaczyński. Between May and July the AWS had included theMovement for Reconstruction of Poland, which would later be associated with the League of Polish Families.
In the2001 parliamentary election, the AWS was formed mainly of four components: the Social Movement, the Christian National Union, the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement and the Confederation of Independent Poland. The coalition won 5.6% and no seats, as the electoral threshold was 8%.
Most of the remaining AWS members later joined either Civic Platform (these included both Krzaklewski and Buzek; the latter has been amember of theEuropean Parliament since 2004 and was itsPresident in 2009–2012) or Law and Justice. In 2002, the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement was merged into what remained of the Conservative People's Party. In 2004 the latter and the Social Movement were replaced by theCentre Party. The Conservative People's Party was revived in 2007 and lasted until 2014, when it became part ofPoland Together. The Christian National Union, most of whose members had joined the League of Polish Families, was active until 2010. Poland Together was transformed intoAgreement in 2017.
TheInternational Republican Institute, aUnited States federal government-funded organisation loosely associated with theUnited States Republican Party, claims credit for having played a major role in uniting the different political parties which came together to create the AWS. It claims to have provided training in political campaigning, communications training and research which helped organise and create the AWS. It also states that once the AWS was in government, it organised an advertising campaign for the Polish government in order to stop the AWS splitting up over internal tensions: "IRI initiated a post-election program that emphasized media and communications training for Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek's chancellory and cabinet".[11]
| Election | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of overall votes | % of overall vote | # of overall votes | % of overall vote | ||
| 2000 | Marian Krzaklewski | 2,739,621 | 15.6 (#3) | ||
| Election | Leader | # of votes | % of vote | # of overall seats won | +/- | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Marian Krzaklewski | 4,427,373 | 33.8 (#1) | 201 / 460 | New | AWS-UW (1997-2000) |
| AWS minority (2000-2001) | ||||||
| 2001 | Jerzy Buzek | 729,207 | 5.6 (#7) | 0 / 460 |  201 | Extra-parliamentary |
| Election | # of overall seats won | +/– |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 51 / 100 | New |
| 2001 | 7 / 100 | 44 |
| As part of theSenate 2001 coalition, which won 15 seats. | ||
| Election | % of vote | # of overall seats won | +/– |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 33.3 (#1) | 342 / 855 | New |
| 2002 | 3.4 (#6) | 17 / 561 | 325 |
Especially on Church and state issues, the UW was closer to the president than to the heavily Catholic AWS - and the Church was playing a very active role in Polish politics, especially since the country ratified the concordat with the Vatican in 1998, allowing, for example, for religious instruction in schools.
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