Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland

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Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland
Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej
LeaderLech Kuropatwiński
FounderAndrzej Lepper
Founded10 January 1992
HeadquartersAleje Jerozolimskie 30,
00-024 Warsaw
IdeologyAgrarianism
Polish nationalism
Populism
Euroscepticism
Political positionSyncretic
Economic: Left-wing[1]
Social: Right-wing to far-right[2][3]
ColoursYellow
European parliamentary groupUEN Group (2004-09)
PES Group (2004-09)
Website
http://samoobrona.net.pl/

Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (Polish: Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej,[4] SRP) is a nationalist,[5] populist,[6][7][8] and agrarian[9][10] political party and trade union in Poland. Its platform combines left-wing populist economic policies with religious conservative social policies.[11]

Founded by Andrzej Lepper in 1992, the party initially fared poorly, failing to enter the Sejm. However, it was catapulted to prominence in the 2001 parliamentary election, winning 53 seats, after which it gave confidence and supply to the Democratic Left Alliance government. It elected six MEPs at the 2004 European election, with five joining the Union for Europe of the Nations and one joining the PES Group.

It switched its support to Law and Justice (PiS) after the 2005 election, in which it won 56 seats in the Sejm and three in the Senate. Lepper was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government with PiS and the League of Polish Families. In 2007, he was dismissed from his position and the party withdrew from the coalition. This precipitated a new election, at which the party collapsed to just 1.5% of the vote: losing all its seats.

On August 5, 2011, the Party's leader, Andrzej Lepper, was found dead in his party's office in Warsaw. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

History[]

The party first started in parliamentary elections in 1993, gaining 2.78% votes and failing to enter the Sejm. In the 1995 elections Andrzej Lepper ran for president and gained 1.32% of the votes; in parliamentary elections in 1997, the party took 0.08%. In 2000 Samoobrona organized a campaign of blocking major roads in order to get media attention. Lepper gained 3.05% votes in the presidential elections.

The parliamentary elections in 2001 gave the party 53 seats in the Sejm, with 10.5% support, making it the third largest political force. Although officially a member of the opposition, Samoobrona backed the ruling social democratic Democratic Left Alliance in a number of key votes, giving them the majority needed to stay in power. The party has also marked its presence in the Sejm by unconventional disruptive behavior.

Among their numerous exploits there are such diverse incidents as using their own loudspeakers after being cut off for exceeding the permitted time, or claiming that the largest opposition party (Civic Platform) met with members of the Taliban in Klewki (a village near Olsztyn) to sell them anthrax.[12] Several Samoobrona members of parliament were subject to criminal investigations on charges ranging from forgery to banditry.

In the 2005 elections Samoobrona received a total of 56 seats with 11.4% support. Andrzej Lepper ran for president of Poland in the 2005 election. He received third place and 15% of the vote, a great improvement over his past performances. After the elections Samooborona temporarily shelved its most radical demands and somewhat toned down its rhetoric and along with the League of Polish Families entered into a coalition with the center-right Law and Justice party.

In December 2006 a scandal broke out when Aneta Krawczyk, a local party ex-leader accused Samoobrona leaders, notably Andrzej Lepper and Stanisław Łyżwiński of sexual harassment.[13] Subsequently, the accusation was supported by other females from within the party ranks and the issue of gaining governmental posts in exchange for sex produced a major outcry after Gazeta Wyborcza published the claims. Krawczyk also claimed her then 3-year-old daughter was Stanisław Łyżwiński's child, which proved to be incorrect following DNA testing.

In consequence Andrzej Lepper stated that Gazeta Wyborcza is part of undefined "forces" attempting to launch a coup d'état,[14] and undermine the coalition with the PiS party, which according to its programme aims at the 'moral rejuvenation' of the nation and the Polish political scene. Despite Samoobrona's leadership's denial of such practices, the evidence supplied by the numerous victims leaves little room for speculation.

In September 2007 the former Polish prime minister Leszek Miller became affiliated with Samoobrona, when he decided to run for the Sejm from their lists.

In February 2016, the party signed a cooperation agreement with the ruling party in Belarus, Belaya Rus.[15]

Ideology[]

The party's views are populist and isolationist.[16] It has also been described as nationalist.[17] The party wants state-funded agriculture, an increase in government social programs, an end to repayments of the foreign debt, introduction of an additional transaction tax and the use of financial reserves to obtain funding. The party is hostile towards foreign investments.

Poland's June 2003 referendum on membership of the European Union was an uncomfortable experience for Samoobrona. On one hand, the party's isolationism and Euroscepticism led it to call officially for a "no" vote.[18] On the other hand, most political observers believed (correctly) that the Polish would vote in favour of membership, and as a populist party Samoobrona was unhappy about the likelihood of being on the losing side. In the end, the party fought a rather ambiguous campaign, with its posters carrying the slogan "the decision belongs to you".

In 2005, Samoobrona was a founding member of the EUDemocrats pan-European political party, which professes to unite "centrist" "EU-critical" parties committed to increased democratization.

Economics[]

Samoobrona had a protectionist attitude toward the country's economy. They wanted to take custom tariffs on foreign goods. Party opted for controlling of Narodowy Bank Polski by Sejm. Additionally, the party's leader Andrzej Lepper was in favor of reintroducing PGRs which were state-owned and controlled homesteads existing during the communist era in Poland.[19]

Social issues[]

Although, Samoobrona was based on the social teaching of Catholic church, the party had right as well as left-leaning elements in its program regarding social issues. Samoobrona supported bringing back of the death penalty to the polish order's law. They were opposed to liberalization of abortion law in Poland and legalisation of euthanasia. However, they took also leftist positions on some matters. Samoobronna was declared in its party platform to legalize civil unions to same-sex couples. Alongside SLD it was the only party who voted in favor of a bill embracing civil unions in 2004.[20] Though party activists of Samoobrona never considered embarrassing the civil unions as an important matter. In its campaign in 2007 Samoobrona called on entirely legalization of marijuana. That was the first party that brought up this theme in polish publish debate.[21][22]

Election results[]

Sejm[]

Election year # of
votes 		% of
vote 		# of
overall seats won 		+/– Government
1991 3,247 0.03 (#70)
0 / 460
 Extra-parliamentary
1993 383,967 2.8 (#12)
0 / 460
 Steady Extra-parliamentary
1997 10,073 0.1 (#14)
0 / 460
 Steady Extra-parliamentary
2001 1,327,624 10.2 (#3)
53 / 460
 Increase 53 SLD-UP-PSL (2001-2003)
SLD-UP (2003-2004)
SLD-UP-SDPL (2004-2005)
2005 1,347,355 11.4 (#3)
56 / 460
 Increase 3 PiS Minority (2005-2006)
PiS–SRP–LPR (2006-2007)
2007 247,335 1.5 (#5)
0 / 460
 Decrease 56 Extra-parliamentary
2011[23] 9,733 0.1 (#11)
0 / 460
 Steady Extra-parliamentary
2015[24] 4,266 0.03 (#15)
0 / 460
 Steady Extra-parliamentary

Senate[]

Election year # of
overall seats won 		+/–
1993
0 / 100
1997
0 / 100
 Steady
2001
2 / 100
 Increase 2
2005
3 / 100
 Increase 1
2007
0 / 100
 Decrease 3
2011[25]
0 / 100
 Steady
2015[26]
0 / 100
 Steady
2019[27]
0 / 100
 Steady

European Parliament[]

Election year # of
votes 		% of
vote 		# of
overall seats won 		+/–
2004 656,782 10.8 (#4)
6 / 54
2009 107,185 1.5 (#7)
0 / 50
 Decrease 6
2014[28] 2,729 0.04 (#12)
0 / 51
 Steady

Presidential[]

Election year Candidate 1st round 2nd round
# of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall votes % of overall vote
1995 Andrzej Lepper 235,797 1.3 (#9)
2000 Andrzej Lepper 537,570 3.1 (#5)
2005 Andrzej Lepper 2,259,094 15.1 (#3)
2010 Andrzej Lepper 214,657 1.3 (#7)

Regional assemblies[]

Election year % of
vote 		# of
overall seats won 		+/–
15.1 (#3)
89 / 855
As part of the Social Alliance.
2002 16.0 (#2)
101 / 561
2006 5.6 (#5)
37 / 561
 Decrease64
2010 1.1
0 / 561
 Decrease37
2014[29] 0.3 (#17)
0 / 555
 Steady

Leadership[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Samoobrona - to była prawdziwa lewica" (in Polish). Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  2. ^ Raymond Taras (2012). Xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe. Edinburgh University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-7486-5487-1.
  3. ^ Knut Andreas Grimstad (2012). "What Europe means for Poland: The front-page coverage of Independence Day in Gazeta Wyborcza 1989–2009". In Ljiljana Saric; Karen Gammelgaard; Kjetil Rå Hauge (eds.). Transforming National Holidays: Identity Discourse in the West and South Slavic Countries, 1985-2010. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 275. ISBN 978-90-272-0638-1.
  4. ^ Name under which party is registered
  5. ^ Marcin Kula; Marcin Zaremba (1998). "Nationalism as an Expression of Social Conflicts in Contemporary Poland". In Ray Taras (ed.). National Identities and Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Europe: Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995. Springer. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-349-26553-4.
  6. ^ Jean-Michel De Waele; Anna Pacześniak (2012). "The Europeanisation of Poland's Political Parties and Party System". In Erol Külahci (ed.). Europeanisation and Party Politics: How the EU affects Domestic Actors, Patterns and Systems. ECPR Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-907301-84-1.
  7. ^ Magone, José M. (2011), Comparative European Politics: An Introduction, Routledge, p. 386
  8. ^ Stijn van Kessel (2015). Populist Parties in Europe: Agents of Discontent?. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-137-41411-3.
  9. ^ Elisabeth Bakke (2010). "Central and East European Party Systems since 1989". In Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.). Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989. Cambridge University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-139-48750-4.
  10. ^ Luca Tomini (2015). Democratizing Central and Eastern Europe: Successes and Failures of the European Union. Routledge. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-317-56675-5.
  11. ^ Reasons for popularity of populist parties - Comparison of Poland and Estonia, Monika Kaliciak[permanent dead link], p. 6
  12. ^ Anthrax claims
  13. ^ Sexual harassment claims
  14. ^ "Lepper claims against Gazeta Wyborca". Archived from the original on 2008-09-30. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
  15. ^ "Belaya Rus offers to mediation services in Belarus-West conflict". Belarus Focus. 22 April 2016.
  16. ^ Political parties :: CivicActive
  17. ^ http://www.kuwi.euv-frankfurt-o.de/de/lehrstuhl/vs/politik1/team/gruen/SO_Paris_Paper.pdf[permanent dead link]
  18. ^ Populist Parties in Poland: Samoobrona - Serious Political Entity or Farce?, “SPACE AND POWER IN EUROPE. CULTURE, COMMUNICATION, AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY”Timothy Campbell[permanent dead link], GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITÄT, GÖTTINGEN, Master of Arts in Euroculture Program, Winter Semester 2005/2006, IP-Abstract, p. 4
  19. ^ https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/bitstream/10593/766/1/DR.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  20. ^ "Do parlamentu po raz dziesiąty powraca temat związków partnerskich". 6 June 2018.
  21. ^ "Samoobrona popiera legalizację marihuany".
  22. ^ "Lepper: Radio Maryja stało się radiem PiS". 23 May 2010.
  23. ^ as Our Home Poland – Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defence
  24. ^ as Self-Defence
  25. ^ as Our Home Poland - Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defence
  26. ^ as Self-Defence
  27. ^ as Self-Defence
  28. ^ as Self-Defence
  29. ^ as Self-Defence

External links[]

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