League of Polish Families

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League of Polish Families
Liga Polskich Rodzin
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^ A: The party is also considered economically left-wing.[19][20][21]
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The League of Polish Families (

far-right elements in the past.[22][23][24][25][26][27] The party's original ideology was that of the National Democracy movement which was headed by Roman Dmowski, however, in 2006 its leader Roman Giertych distanced himself from that heritage.[28]

It was represented in the Polish parliament, forming part of the cabinet of Jarosław Kaczyński[29] until the latter dissolved in September 2007.[30] In the 2007 parliamentary election, it failed to gain the 5% threshold required to enter the Sejm and lost all its seats, even failing to cross the 3% threshold for eligibility to receive government funding. Since then, the party has become a minor political force, but continues to exist.

The All-Polish Youth used to be affiliated with the party as its youth wing, but these two organisations later severed their relations.

History

The LPR was created just before the

Senate. Its former leader, Roman Giertych, studied Law and History at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. During his career his political alliances have included such Polish National Democrats as Jan Łopuszański, Antoni Macierewicz,[31] Gabriel Janowski.[32]

National Party
(Stronnictwo Narodowe), which merged with several other organisations to form the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) in 2001.

Roman Giertych's father, Maciej Giertych, also a member of LPR, is a former member of the European Parliament. His grandfather was a member of parliament of the Second Polish Republic prior to World War II from the National Democracy Party. Some sources claim that the LPR owes much of its success to Radio Maryja, a Catholic radio station with a nationalist, ultra-conservative agenda.

The performance of League of Polish Families in the September 2001 elections, has been partly attributed to its well publicized and uncompromising attitude towards the Jedwabne pogrom.[33] During the election campaign Ryszard Bender, one of the LPR founders and leaders, participated in LPR television broadcasts denying the facts of the Jedwabne pogrom of 1941 and accusing President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who participated in commemoration ceremony, that took place in the village of Jedwabne in July 2001, of bowing to Jewish interest groups.[34]

Soon after the election in 2001 a group of deputies separated from LPR, creating a new party known now as

Catholic-National Movement (Ruch Katolicko-Narodowy) led by Antoni Macierewicz.[35][citation needed
]

In the

Samoobrona and the conservative Law and Justice (PiS). However, the overall turnout of that election was less than 20% of eligible voters. Thus, the long-term significance of the LPR's strong performance in that election is unclear. In the 2005 elections
, LPR again received 8% of votes, but saw its seats reduced from 38 to 34. However, it gained five seats in the Senate, taking it up to seven.

The 2005 election produced no clear winner, producing a political gridlock and a possibility of new elections. The two largest parties, PiS and PO, entered negotiations in order to form a "grand coalition". The PiS-PO coalition was supported by 44% of PiS voters and 78% of PO voters. However, PO broke off negotiations - PO complained that although PiS offered it half of the Polish 16 ministries, none of them included the so-called "power-ministries" (interior, justice and secret services), which led to fears that PiS would abuse its control over the Polish justice system. PO also noted that PiS had been shifting to the left economically, whereas PO was staunchly neoliberal.[36]

Ultimately, PiS settled down for a minority government, composed entirely of PiS members. However, the party began losing popular support in 2006, which eventually forced it to form a "stabilization pact" with League of Polish Families and Samoobrona. All three parties were, to varying degrees, socially conservative and economically left-leaning. For its part, LPR demanded the withdrawal of the Polish army from Iraq, renegotiation of the EU accession treaty, as well as "pro-family" economic policy.[36]

However, the coalition broke down in August 2007 - PiS sought to "neutralize" LPR and Samoobrona, aware of a significant overlap between the voter bases of all parties involved.[36] To this end, PiS arranged a sting operation against the leader of Samoobrona, Andrzej Lepper, in order to expose his supposed bribery. The plot failed, and PiS expelled Samoobrona from the government.[37] LPR also abandoned the coalition, accusing PiS of abandoning what LPR called the “national-socialist program” that all three parties agreed to in the stabilization pact.[36]

Samoobrona and LPR then joined forces to form a single formation, the League and Self-Defense (LiS). Initially, LiS was seen positively by the press and the electorate - political scientist Andrzej Rychard argued that it had a chance to become "a better PiS", outflank on left-wing economic appeal, and attract voters nostalgic towards communism. In the summer of 2007, LiS was polling as much as 23%.[38] However, the formation rapidly declined in polls as Samoobrona and LPR clashed with each other, which led to dissolution of LiS in September 2007.[39]

Ultimately, Samoobrona and LPR ran separately. In the 2007 Parliamentary election, both parties failed to gain the 5% of votes required to enter the Sejm and lost all its seats, in addition to failing meeting the 3% of votes requirement for eligibility to receive government funding. The leader of LPR, Roman Giertych, stepped down from his post as the party's leader,[39] while Lepper died in 2011. The left-wing populist appeal of Samoobrona was taken and consolidated by PiS.[37] Likewise, PiS "neutralized" LPR by appropriating its Catholic nationalist rhetoric and sociocultural stances.[36]

Some present or former members of LPR (including Janusz Dobrosz) and five of its MEPs moved to Forward Poland in 2008/9.

In the 2010s, the party became more moderate and changed its attitude towards the European Union. In parliamentary and presidential elections, it usually supports the candidates of the Civic Platform or the Polish People's Party. In 2019, LPR declared its accession to the European Coalition. Roman Giertych is an active politician in the ruling coalition, and has stated successfully ran for the Sejm in the 2023 Polish parliamentary election as part of the Civic Coalition.

Ideology

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The party was described as belonging to the populist current in European politics, that juxtaposes the 'simple man' and the 'corrupt elite'.[40]

The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics described the party as

nationalist,[41] the party's agenda combining conservative social values, Christian solidarity and nationalism. Adam Michnik has characterized the groups that formed the party as the heirs of the chauvinist, xenophobic and antisemitic organizations of the pre-war Poland.[42] In 2023, the party was described as "Christian Democrat, manifesting their conservatism and attachment to Christian values".[43]

The party takes economically anti-capitalist stances,[5] campaigning on re-nationalization of the Polish economy, promoting welfare programs, and strongly opposing cuts in social spending and taxation.[20] Its economic stances are based on the party's own interpretation of the Catholic social teaching.[19] containing many populist as well as socialist policies and proposals.[44]

Economic issues

Economically, the party takes an interventionist and anti-capitalist stance.

Neo-Malthusianism".[45]

According to political scientists Tomasz Zarycki and George Kolankiewicz, LPR holds "objectively left-wing views on issues such as privatisation, state intervention in the economy and redistribution of wealth", combined with "strong opposition to Polish EU membership and, more generally, a nationalist and anti-cosmopolitan worldview."[46] Similarly, Oliver Kossack argued that LPR is "clearly positioned on the left end of the socio-economic spectrum".[20] Some also called LPR the "national left",[45] which was also a classification applied to Samoobrona.[47]

The party supports for the "defense of Polish property" through nationalization of most Polish industries, development of domestic agriculture via state intervention and protectionist measures, as well as creating a economy that would prioritize care for Polish families and the homeless. It claims to be a voice of the disadvantaged groups that became the "losers" of socioeconomic changes in Poland, caused by globalization, privatization and austerity.[48] LPR rejects capitalism as a system that causes the "McDonaldization of the planet"; it also condemns neoliberalism and the tradition of economic liberalism in general as "lumpenliberalism" that is characterized by consumptionism and hedonism rather than serving the needs of the poor and disadvantaged.[49] It postulates the creation of an extensive system of welfare and social protection. Political scientist Tim Bale described LPR as an overtly anti-capitalist party,[5] and Ashley Timidaiski considers the economic ideology of the LPR to be a combination of populism and socialism.[44]

LPR argues that after 1989, Polish economy should have remained state-owned, and made to serve the interests of the Polish nation. The party considers the privatization of crucial industries such as the energy, mining, road and railway industries particularly detrimental to the interests of Polish people. It accused the cabinets that carried out privatization to have sold the Polish economy to foreign capital for personal gain and causing widespread poverty and misery. It also harshly attacked privatization of the armaments industry, concluding that the Polish transition of capitalism was "economic colonialism".[50] It decried privatization as "pathological" and undemocratic, arguing that any kind of privatization should have been voted on in the Sejm. The solution proposed by the party was renationalization of the Polish economy and a creation of investigative committees that would persecute and criminalize "unfair" and "treasonous" cases of privatization and deregulation.[51]

In addition to its support of a state-owned industry, the party also envisioned an extensive spending program that would greatly increase spending on education and healthcare, as well as provide generous subsidies to core industrise as well as research in order to spur innovation. LPR believes that Poland should be self-sufficient in regards to energy and food, and prioritize the development of Polish agriculture. The agricultural proposals of the party include a referendum on banning foreign ownership of arable land in Poland, land reform that would break up large farms in favor of "family farms", as well as a program that would guarantee full employment to the impoverished rural regions. LPR also postulated environmental improvements and development of biofuels in order to guarantee "ecologically high" quality of Polish agricultural products. The party consistently supported farmer protests, and spoke against suppressing them through police intervention.[51]

The party is also highly protectionist, listing protection of Polish economy from foreign capital and competition as one of its main goals. According to LPR, Polish economic regulations favor foreign capital and suppress local industries; the party proposes to reverse the situation by heavily limiting the presence and possibilities of foreign capital in Poland, and introducing a package of reforms that would favor Polish producers over foreign ones. Foreign corporations in Poland are to be obliged to invest at least 50% of their profit from Poland to local economies. The party also attacked what it perceived to be a monopolizaton of the Polish economy, described as an emergence of large corporations and chain stores; LPR particularly called for regulation and extensive taxation of "hypermarkets" and supermarkets, and blamed them for the decline of family stores.[51]

Social issues

Some of the policies the LPR opposes include: the selling of land to foreigners (especially German

Polish communist secret police—in other words, full "de-Communization".[citation needed
]

The party particularly appealed to voters sympathetic towards traditional social values, the Catholic faith, and the concept of Polish national sovereignty. Its policies also attract some who feel lost in the post-1989 political transformation of the country, although the populist

antisemitic articles; some of the Polish politicians like Adam Michnik have been characterized as pink hyenas representing non-Polish interests, assisted by Mossad and "godless, satanical masons propagating nihilism and demoralisation." Those "dark forces" are said to be fiercely opposed to a Catholic state of the Polish nation.[52]

The party was considered staunchly homophobic,[53] and its opposition to same-sex marriage and several other demands of Polish gays and lesbians has led to condemnation of the party by the European Commission.[54] It was also labelled as antisemitic by some authors.[55][56]

In the 2010s, LPR ceased to arouse controversy and began gradually moving to the

Eurosceptic. Its views on religion
have also become more moderate.

Stance towards the European Union

The party was

Polish nation
. Although it retains its nationalistic ideology, it mainly supports the EU.

Election results

Sejm

Election year # of
votes 		% of
vote 		# of
overall seats won 		+/– Government
2001 1,025,148 7.9 (#6)
38 / 460
 SLD-UP-PSL (2001-2003)
SLD-UP (2003-2005)
SLD-UP-SDPL (2004-2005)
2005 940,762 8.0 (#5)
34 / 460
 Decrease 4
PiS
Minority (2005)
PiS–SRP
–LPR (2006-2007)
PiS
Minority (2007)
2007 209,171 1.3 (#6)
0 / 460
 Decrease 34 PO–PSL

Senate

Election year # of
overall seats won 		+/–
2001
2 / 100
2005
7 / 100
 Increase 5
2007
0 / 100
 Decrease 7

European Parliament

Election year # of
votes 		% of
vote 		# of
overall seats won 		+/–
2004 969,689 15.9 (#2)
10 / 54
2009 83,754 1.1 (#8)
0 / 50
 Decrease 10
Running as part of Libertas Poland.

Regional assemblies

Election year % of
vote 		# of
overall seats won 		+/–
2002 14.4 (#4)
92 / 561
2006 4.7 (#6)
11 / 561
 Decrease81
2010
0 / 561
 Decrease11
2014 0.3 (#19)
0 / 555
 Steady

Literature

  • The League of Polish Families between East and West, past and present by Sarah L. de Lange and Simona Guerrab. In: Communist and Post-Communist Studies. Volume 42, Issue 4, December 2009, pp. 527–549

See also

References

  1. ^ "Obradował Kongres Ligi Polskich Rodzin". lpr.pl. Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ "Roman Giertych on X: "W Teksasie, za zgodą SN, de facto zlikwidowano aborcję. Zmienia się powoli na świecie podejście do tego tragicznego dziedzictwa XX wieku."". Archived from the original on 28 August 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  3. ISBN 9781442209961
    . Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  4. ^ "Giertych zaczepia Bąkiewicza: "Mój wujek z Kedywu walnąłby ci w łeb". Internauci oburzeni: "Żenujące"; "Niebywałe"". Archived from the original on 28 August 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  5. ^
    ISSN 1350-4649
    .
  6. ^ "Roman Giertych o deklaracji LGBT Trzaskowskiego: Popełnił Błąd". Archived from the original on 15 January 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  7. ^ "Powrót LPR - Popiera Koalicję Europejską". rp.pl. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-1907301513
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  9. ISBN 978-1135071981
    . Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  10. ISBN 978-1-907301-84-1. Archived
    from the original on 2023-09-08. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  11. ^ Gwiazda, Anna (2015). Democracy in Poland. Routledge. national conservative League of Polish Families (LPR) had a high percentage of women
  12. ^ "EU country briefing: Poland". Euractiv. 15 April 2019. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  13. ISBN 9781139487504, archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023, retrieved 17 November 2011
  14. ISBN 9781134378609
    , retrieved 10 December 2011
  15. ISBN 9789537022204
    , retrieved 10 December 2011
  16. ISBN 9780415355933
    , retrieved 10 December 2011
  17. ISBN 9780313323621
    , retrieved 10 December 2011
  18. ^ "Grzegorz Schetyna: Roman Giertych będzie światłem, które pokaże słabość Jarosława Kaczyńskiego". Archived from the original on 28 August 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  19. ^ a b Gorbaniuk, Oleg [in Polish] (2010). "Wpływ katastrofy pod Smoleńskiem na atrybucję cech osobowości ugrupowaniom politycznym" [The Impact of the Smolensk Air Crash on the Attribution of Personality Traits to Political Parties] (PDF). Current Problems of Psychiatry. 11 (2). John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin: 118. League of Polish Families – ultra-catholic, radical nationalist party. It combines social conservatism with isolationism (anti-EU) and left-wing economic policies, based upon its own interpretation of Catholic Social Teaching.
  20. ^
    ISBN 978-3-8376-6715-8
    . The LPR was clearly positioned on the left end of the socio-economic spectrum. The party's socio-economic policies were based in Catholic social teaching and connected to the socio-cultural core issues of the party (Łapiński 2004). As for specific policies, the party campaigned for the re-nationalisation of key industries, against cuts in the welfare system,and for taxation and social systems which supported their traditional understandings of the family (Millard 2010, 131–33).
  21. ISSN 1230-3135
    . Although strong pro-social policy stances and economic chauvinism (protecting domestic entrepreneurship from foreign capital) place the party on the extreme left of the economic axis, LPR can be labelled as a "soft right-wing extremism" or radical right-wing populism.
  22. ISBN 9789537022204. Archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  23. ISBN 9780313323621. Archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  24. ISBN 9780415355933. Archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  25. ^ [1] Archived 2023-05-03 at the Wayback Machine ("extreme right")
  26. ISBN 9789187582189. Archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  27. ISBN 9780521835640. Archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  28. ^ http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/wyborcza/1,34591,3484547.html%7Ctytuł=Dmowskiego[permanent dead link] do Ligi bym nie przyjął|opublikowany=gazeta.pl
  29. ^ "Polish President Appoints His Twin Brother as Premier (Update2)". Bloomberg. 10 July 2006. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  30. ^ "Centre-Right Parties Almost Tied in Poland: Angus Reid Global Monitor". Archived from the original on June 15, 2009.
  31. ISBN 978-1400825813. Archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  32. ^ "Not Quite a Revolution". EurActiv - EU News & policy debates, across languages. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  33. ISBN 0-415-31479-8
    .
  34. OCLC 55228719
    .
  35. ^ de Lange, Sarah L.; Guerra, Simona (December 2009). "The League of Polish Families Between East and West, Past and Present". Communist and Post-Communist Studies. 42 (2): 535.
  36. ^
    ISSN 1230-3135
    .
  37. ^
    ISBN 978-1-909499-06-5
    .
  38. ^ "Experten geben neuer Partei LiS gute Chancen". derstandard.at (in German). 18 July 2007.
  39. ^
    ISBN 978-83-63322-28-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  40. ^
    ISBN 9781571816412. Archived
    from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  41. ^ 'Social Poland'Defeats 'Liberal Poland'? The September–October 2005 Polish Parliamentary and Presidential Elections by Aleks Szczerbiak. In: Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Volume 23, Issue 2 June 2007, pages 203 - 232
  42. ^ The Polish Witch-Hunt By Adam Michnik. Available at http://www.hacusa.org/NoticedInThePress/2007/NYRB_062807__Michnik_Adam__Poland.doc Archived 2011-03-12 at the Wayback Machine., accessed 23 August 2010.
  43. ^ Stamm-Korecka, Agnieszka (2023). Portret socjologiczny młodych mieszkańców aglomeracji poznańskiej o prawicowej autoidentyfikacji. Wymiar odświętny a życie codzienne [A sociological portrait of young inhabitants of Poznań agglomeration with right-wing self-identification. Festive dimension and everyday life] (PDF) (Thesis) (in Polish). Poznań. p. 38.
  44. ^
    doi:10.17615/33j8-8k77
    .
  45. ^ a b "LPR - jeśli nie skrajna prawica, to co?". Niepoprawni (in Polish). 31 May 2009.
  46. ISBN 0903425718
    .
  47. ISSN 2944-3903
    . In January 1992, the Samoobrona was formed, a political party with national-leftist, nationalist, and national-Catholic ideas, led by Andrzej Lepper, who, according to Szymborska, epitomized the vulgarity of politicians and small-minded people who had gained power.
  48. ISSN 1612-9008
    .
  49. ^ Zając, Ryszard (15 July 2007). "Mapa drogowa Giertycha" (in Polish).
  50. ^ Beichelt, Timm (27 March 2003). "Nationalism and anti-EU mobilization in postsocialist Europe" (PDF). Frankfurt an der Oder: European University Viadrina Frankfurt Oder. p. 5.
  51. ^
    ISBN 978-83-89706-84-3
    .
  52. ^ Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in Europe, legacies and lessons from the twentieth century. By Jerzy W. Borejsza, Klaus Ziemer, Magdalena Hułas, Instytut Historii (Polska Akademia Nauk). p. 365.
  53. ISBN 9780203935064
    . Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  54. ^ "Poland: School Censorship Proposal Threatens Basic Rights - Human Rights Watch". Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  55. ISBN 978-0-415-35593-3
    .
  56. ISBN 978-0-8032-3240-2
    .
  57. ^ Poland's right-wingers On the rise. The Economist, Dec 12th 2002
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