Kukiz'15

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Kukiz'15 is a right-wing populist political party in Poland led by Paweł Kukiz.

It was formed in 2015 as a loose movement that registered itself as an association in 2016 and later as a political party in 2020. Initially, it was connected with far-right parties such as the National Movement, although since 2016 it has moderated its political outlook. During the 2018 local elections, it coordinated with the socially conservative Right Wing of the Republic and in 2019 it joined the Polish Coalition. Due to its eurosceptic stances, its membership was terminated from the coalition, and in May 2021 it announced its support for the ruling United Right coalition.

Political positions

Kukiz'15 was initially connected with the National Movement party,^[1][2] although Kukiz'15 itself was not characterized as far right but rather national-conservative,^[3] conservative-liberal,^[4] and anti-establishment.^[5][3] After 2016, they ceased operations with far-right organizations and politicians.^[6][7][8] Since its inception, it has lacked programmatic coherence and thus has been described as a big tent party.^[9][10][11] In its program, they have expressed support for direct democracy.^[12][13] Its leader and the party has expressed eurosceptic stances,^[14] and has been described as a right-wing populist,^[15][16][17] and conservative party,^[18] that sits on the centre-right^[1][2] and right wing on the political spectrum.^[19]

The key postulates upon foundation of the party were:

• Eliminating the monopoly of political parties in parliament ("destroying particracy")^[1][20]
• Electoral reform, eliminating
  first past the post or mixed electoral system.^[21][22]
• Separation of government, courts and parliament.^[23]
• Protection of civic liberties.
• Introduction of obligatory referendums.

History

The movement was founded after Kukiz stood in the 2015 presidential election, winning 21% of the vote and coming in third during the election's first round. Kukiz's primary issue during the election was the replacement of Poland's proportional representation electoral system with single member constituencies,^[24][25] which was the subject of a referendum in September 2015.

The movement was particularly popular among young people: Kukiz won 42% among voters aged 18 to 29 in the 2015 presidential election.^[26]

In the 2015 parliamentary election, Kukiz'15 cooperated with the far-right National Movement, which gained 5 of Kukiz' 42 parliamentary seats.^[1][27]

In April 2016, the National Movement leadership decided to end its collaboration with Kukiz'15 and instructed its MPs to leave the Kukiz'15 parliamentary club, but only one MP followed party instructions.^[28] These ones, who stayed in Kukiz'15, together with a few other Kukiz' MPs, formed National Democracy (Endecja).^[29]

There was a Sejm scandal in April 2016.

In February 2017, three Kukiz'15 MPs left the group and became a parliamentary representation of the association "Republicans" (Republikanie).

In February 2018, Paweł Kukiz apologised for having introduced the nationalists into the Sejm.^[8]

In May 2018, Kukiz'15 has coordinated with the social conservative Right Wing of the Republic in local elections.^[30]

In August 2019 Kukiz'15 joined the Polish People's Party (PSL) to set up a joint list for the 2019 parliamentary election named Polish Coalition. This alliance helped both parties overcome the 5%-threshold and Kukiz kept 6 MPs in the Sejm. Because of that alliance, the Real Politics Union ended cooperation with Kukiz'15.

However, the ideological differences between the Pro-European PSL and the Eurosceptic Kukiz MPs led to a quick fallout. In November 2020, a

After Jarosław Gowin's scepticism with the "Polish Deal" proposal (an economic recovery plan for countering the COVID-19 recession in Poland) and media law changes that would inevitably force the American company Discovery, Inc. to sell its TVN Group, Gowin was publicly removed from his position as deputy prime minister, resulting in realignment of the composition of the coalition.^[33] As result, Adam Bielan's "Agreement rebels" new party joined the coalition as replacements, and the remaining Kukiz '15 MP's led by Paweł Kukiz declared their support for the coalition, except Stanisław Tyszka.^[34]

Deputies

All deputies were elected on United Right list

• Paweł Kukiz - leader of the party.
• Jarosław Sachajko
• Marek Jakubiak

Election results

Sejm

Election year	Leader	Number of votes	Percentage of vote	Number of overall seats won	+/–	Government
2015	Paweł Kukiz	1,339,094	8.81 (#3)	42 / 460	New	Opposition
2019		1,578,523	8.6 (#4)	6 / 460	36	Opposition (2019–2021)
						Support (2021–2022)
						Opposition (2022–2023)
		As part of Polish Coalition, which won 30 seats in total.
2023		7,640,854	35.4 (#1)	3 / 460	3	Opposition
		As part of the United Right coalition, which won 194 seats in total.

Regional assemblies

Election year	% of vote	# of overall seats won	+/–
2018	5.7 (#5)	0 / 552

European Parliament

Election year	# of vote	% of vote	# of overall seats won	+/–
2019	503,564	3.69 (#5)	0 / 52

Presidential

Footnotes