Social Alliance (Poland)

Social Alliance
Przymierze Społeczne
AbbreviationPS
Leaders
Founded27 June 1998[1]
Dissolved23 September 2001[2]
HeadquartersSłupsk, Poland[3]
Membership (1998)65,000[4]
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing[6]
Members
AlliesDemocratic Left Alliance[7]
Polish Socialist Party[8]
Solidarność '80[2]
Colors  Navy blue
  Green
SloganTogether we can do it
Polish: Razem damy radę
Balcerowicz－year's dud
Polish: Balcerowicz－bubel roku

The Social Alliance was an electoral coalition created for the 1998 Polish local elections. Formed on 27 June 1998, the Social Alliance included the Polish People's Party along with its smaller left-oriented party partners, such as the Labour Union, the National Party of Retirees and Pensioners, the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland[9] and few members of Alliance of Democrats (Poland). The party represented the "independent left" that challenged the anti-communist and pro-communist dichotomy of Polish politics while maintaining a strongly leftist profile inspired by pre-WW2 socialist and agrarian movements.[5] It protested against the capitalist reforms carried out in Poland such as austerity, criticizing them for creating massive wealth inequality.[2] Nevertheless, the coalition cooperated with the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance as well as the Polish Socialist Party.[8]

Despite ideological disputes between coalition members, in particular between the Eurosceptic Samoobrona and the pro-EU Labour Union, as well as funding gap, the Social Alliance was well-received and achieved a good result.[10] With its anti-capitalist program, the coalition obtained 89 seats in provincial voivodeship sejmiks (12,04%) and 4,583 powiat and gmina councillor seats. Despite its success, the coalition was short-lived and was dissolved on the day of the 2001 Polish parliamentary election.[2] Nevertheless, the coalition is credited with successfully challenging the dichotomy of 1990s Polish politics, and became an inspiration for similar coalition concepts, such as the "Workers' and Peasants' Alliance" between Polish Socialist Party and Samoobrona, or an 'All-Agrarian Coalition' composed of Polish People's Party, Samoobrona and rural trade unions.[8]

  1. ^ Sieklucki, Dominik (2007). Partie lewicy i centrolewicy w polskim systemie partyjnym: Aktywność SLD, PSL i UP na polskiej scenie politycznej (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. p. 150. ISBN 978-83-233-2241-2.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Syska, Michał (5 August 2019). "„Razem możemy więcej"". Krytyka Polityczna (in Polish).
  3. ^ "Trójprzymierze" (PDF). Głos Pomorza (in Polish) (167): 1. 20 June 1998.
  4. ^ Tyrała, Marek (2014). Koalicje polityczne w Polsce w latach 1991-2011 (PDF) (in Polish). Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski. pp. 146–147.
  5. ^ a b c Sieklucki, Dominik (2007). Partie lewicy i centrolewicy w polskim systemie partyjnym: Aktywność SLD, PSL i UP na polskiej scenie politycznej (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. p. 156. ISBN 978-83-233-2241-2.
  6. ^ Zarycki, Tomasz; Kolankiewicz, George (2003). Regional Issues in Polish Politics. SSEES Occasional Papers. London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies. p. 247. ISBN 0903425718.
  7. ^ Sieklucki, Dominik (2007). Partie lewicy i centrolewicy w polskim systemie partyjnym: Aktywność SLD, PSL i UP na polskiej scenie politycznej (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. p. 89. ISBN 978-83-233-2241-2.
  8. ^ a b c Tomasiewicz, Jarosław [in Polish] (2023). "Populiści w poszukiwaniu tożsamości – ideologiczne inspiracje Samoobrony (1991–2007)". Praktyka Teoretyczna (in Polish). 48 (2): 54–55. doi:10.19195/prt.2023.2.2.
  9. ^ Kowalczy, Andrzej (2000). "Local Government in Poland" (PDF). Local Governments in Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest: Open Society Institute: 218–254. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-21.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference siek_86 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).