Democratic Party – demokraci.pl

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The Democratic Party – democrats.pl (Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl) is a social liberal party in Poland, publicly announced on February 28 and formally established on May 9, 2005 as an "enlargement" of the Freedom Union (Unia Wolności), which it legally succeeds.

[edit] History

The Democratic Party was formed on the initiative of UW chairman Władysław Frasyniuk, together with the economist Jerzy Hausner, until recently a member of the governing post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), and prominent former UW member Tadeusz Mazowiecki. It was since strongly supported, but thus far not yet officially joined, by then prime minister Marek Belka and centrist members of the Democratic Left Alliance. Although it attracted considerable media attention and support from many Polish intellectuals, it received only 2.5% of the vote (and no seats in parliament) in the Polish parliamentary election in October, 2005.

The core of the Democratic Party is made up by the members of the Freedom Union (Unia Wolności, UW), which had so far been the most important liberal group in the Polish political landscape. Since its inception in 1994, the UW had to cope with internal frictions between various factions: Free market liberals (such as Leszek Balcerowicz), those proposing a liberal economic agenda in a more conservative, bourgeois guise (such as Donald Tusk), more progressive social liberals such as Jacek Kuroń, and intellectual former civil rights activists such as Bronisław Geremek or Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who also has a strong background in liberal Catholicism and leans towards Christian democracy.

In 2001, these frictions - combined with the prospect of a devastating defeat in the upcoming election - led to an exodus of conservative and market-liberal members around Tusk who joined former members of the UW's senior coalition partner, the conservative AWS, to form the new Citizens' Platform (PO) party. In the 2001 general elections, the Freedom Union received only 3.1% and thus failed to cross the 5% threshold required to gain entry to Parliament. With Władysław Frasyniuk replacing Geremek as chairman, the Freedom Union continued to exist as a social liberal party, but lost much of its relevance in Polish politics. It consistently enjoys the support of approximately 3% of voters. However, probably due to low voter turnout, the party managed to cross the required 5% threshold in the 2004 European Parliament elections, receiving 7% of votes and 4 out of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament as part of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, of which it is a member.

On February 29, 2005, Frasyniuk came out with the initiative to merge the UW into a new liberal party to be called "the Democrats", which he presented with Mazowiecki and Jerzy Hausner. Mazowiecki had left the UW in November 2002 after it had left the conservative-Christian democrat European People's Party in favour of the liberal European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, and entered coalitions with the social democratic Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) and the populist peasant Self-Defence party on the local level. Hausner, on the other hand, is an economist with a post-communist background. As minister of economic affairs and employment in the governments of Leszek Miller and Marek Belka, he conceived the so-called Hausner Plan (Plan Hausnera), a programme for liberal reform concerning state-owned business, public administration, and social security. After his reform met with persistent opposition, he left the SLD in a much debated move on 7 February and resigned from office on March 30, 2005.

From the beginning, Frasyniuk, Hausner and Mazowiecki appealed to prime minister Marek Belka to join the party. Belka, another former SLD member, had left the party in the early 1990s, but joined Leszek Miller's government as a non-party minister of economic affairs in 2001 before resigning the following year. After an interlude as economic director in the interim coalition administration of Iraq in 2003, Belka returned to Poland to become non-party head of an SLD minority government in 2004.

The involvement of Hausner and Belka as prominent post-communists marks a first in Polish politics: for the first time, a political party is created by members of the former communist government and former opposition members. Also, while the UW was a somewhat elitist party appealing mostly to educated and affluent urban voters, the PD is trying to establish itself as a popular party with a broad appeal, which caters for social liberals (Frasyniuk), pragmatic market liberals (Hausner) and centrist Christian democrats (Mazowiecki).

As of 27 May 2005, the party claims to have 13,000+ members, out of which 8,000 were members of the Freedom Union. It defines itself as, "above all, a group of young people not previously involved in politics, which at the same time is drawing on the best traditions of the liberal-democrat milieu around the Freedom Union" [1]. Despite this statement the party is made of several former politicians, who had run Poland before, as well as including ex-members of SLD who left the party when it faced a corruption crisis.

A manifesto entitled "Development through Democracy" issued by the party in February 2005 was signed by a broad range of Polish intellectuals and artists, including Paweł Huelle (writer), Marek Edelman (physician, last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Rising), Agnieszka Holland (director), Marek Kondrat (actor), Kazimierz Kutz (director), Jan Miodek (linguist), Daniel Olbrychski (actor), Jerzy Pilch (writer), Henryk Samsonowicz (historian), Jerzy Szacki (sociologist). Lech Wałęsa's son Jarosław Wałęsa also signed the manifesto.

[edit] Ideology

Key proposals of the party include:

• Support for the European constitution in the referendum in October 2005
• Tax cuts, introduction of an 18% flat tax on incomes
• Reduction of non-wage labour costs, tax remissions for business starters
• Creation of new jobs, e.g. through a first-year exemption from social security contributions for graduate entrants
• Appointment of an ombudsman to represent entrepreneurs damnified by fiscal or other authorities
• Increased spending on education
• Studentship funds for rural youth
• Compulsory education starting at age 6 (presently 7), popularisation of instruction in two foreign languages at primary school level
• Improvement and nationwide standardisation of health services
• Establishment of a public hospital network not subject to privatisation
• Reduction in telecommunication costs to facilitate internet access
• Opposition to abortion and gay marriage

[edit] Popular Support

The Freedom Union's transformation into the Democratic Party has not significantly increased voter support for the liberals, which since autumn 2004 has been oscillating between 3% and 6%. In June 2005 it was at 4% [2] and has since deteriorated; in the parliamentary elections of September 2005, it reached 2.5%, failing to overcome the election threshold of 5%. Because the party received less than 3%, it does not receive refunds of its campaign costs. It also lacks significant presence in the media as a consequence of its poor election result, which has further diminished its appeal. In December 2005, the party merely reached 1% of support in a poll [3]. As a result, some political observers question the party's ability to further continue in its present shape.

[edit] Criticism

The Democratic Party has attracted criticism from other former oppositionists from communist times, who criticise that the party accepts former members of the post-communist SLD, and strongly opposes the large-scale vetting of officials and politicians (see Bronisław Wildstein) aimed at eliminating former state agents from political life. Also, the party's formal electoral and later parliamentary coalition with SLD, Left and Democrats, which lasted from 2006 until 2008, has been seen as disloyalty of Solidarity's ideals by many.

[edit] Leading members

[edit] See also

• Liberalism in Poland
• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy

[edit] External links

• Official website

v • d • e Political parties in Poland Civic Platform – Law and Justice – League of the Right of the Republic (League of Polish Families, Real Politics Union, Right of the Republic) – Left and Democrats (Democratic Left Alliance, Democratic Party – demokraci.pl, Labour Union, Social Democracy of Poland) – Polish People's Party – Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Poland