Catholic Electoral Action

Catholic Electoral Action
Wyborcza Akcja Katolicka
FoundedOctober 1990
DissolvedNovember 1991
HeadquartersWarsaw, Poland
IdeologyNational conservatism[1]
National Catholicism[2]
Political Catholicism[3]
Pro-Europeanism[4]
Political positionRight-wing[5]
MembersChristian National Union
Union of Catholic Laity
Christian Civic Movement
Federation of Kresy Organisations
Citizens' Committees
Colours  Blue
  Black

Catholic Electoral Action (Polish: Wyborcza Akcja Katolicka), abbreviated as WAK, was a right-wing electoral committee that participated in the 1991 Polish parliamentary election. The committee was formed in October 1990 and consisted of 20 various groupings that split from Solidarity.[6] The committee's members belonged to the National-Catholic and national conservative Christian National Union.[7] Led by Wiesław Chrzanowski, Catholic Electoral Action won 49 seats in the Sejm and 9 seats in Senat during the 1991 poll.[8] The committee claimed support from the Roman Catholic Church and received relatively strong support in rural areas.[7] Following the election's conclusion, the Christian National Union disbanded its nom de guerre Catholic Electoral Action, sitting in parliament under the party's actual name.[9]

The coalition was National-Catholic and went beyond the tenets of Christian democracy. The Catholic Electoral Action argued that state policies in Poland should be based on Catholicism, and saw the Catholic Church as a "source" of the Polish nation and identity. The coalition sought to make Poland an explicitly Catholic nation and state.[3] It condemned "materialist" and communist influences prevalent in Poland and argued that the instability and then downfall of the communist regime in the 1980s was caused by its attempt to remove Catholicism from public life.[10] Despite presenting itself as a confessional party based on political Catholicism, the Catholic Electoral Action was strongly supportive of free-market economy and had a staunchly pro-EU and pro-USA orientation, which ran contrary to the views and statements of the Polish Catholic Church.[2][10]

  1. ^ Gomez, Victor (2014). From Protest to Party The Transformation of Anti-Communist Opposition Movements in East-Central Europe (PDF). University of Toronto. p. 70.
  2. ^ a b Pluta, Anna M. (2010). Legitimising Accession: Transformation Politics and Elite Consensus on EU Membership in Poland, 1989-2003. ProQuest LLC. pp. 78–83.
  3. ^ a b Sozańska, Dominika (2011). Chrześcijańska demokracja w Polsce: Przyczyny słabości i szanse rozwoju. Kraków: Krakowska Akademia im. Andrzeja Frycza Modrzewskiego. pp. 115–144. ISBN 978-83-7571-125-7.
  4. ^ Wojciechowski, Krzysztof (2018). Determinanty debaty politycznej nad kierunkami rozwoju oświaty w Polsce po 1989 roku (Doctor of Political Science thesis) (in Polish). Poznań. p. 301.
  5. ^ Kamiński, Marek M. (2002). "Czy partie korzystają na manipulacjach systemem wyborczym? Ordynacje wyborcze i herestetyka w Polsce w latach 1989-1993". Studia Socjologiczne (in Polish). 165 (2). University of California: 61. ISSN 0039-3371.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference frieling was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b Jasiewicz, Krzysztof (April 1992). "From Solidarity to Fragmentation" (PDF). Journal of Democracy. 3 (2): 55–69. doi:10.1353/jod.1992.0024. S2CID 144365334. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference swider was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Gebethner, Stanisław (1996). "Parliamentary and Electoral Parties in Poland". In Lewis, Paul G (ed.). Party Structure and Organization in East-Central Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Company. pp. 120–133. ISBN 1858982898.
  10. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference kujawski was invoked but never defined (see the help page).