Polish People's Party
폴란드 인민당
A Polish agrarian party whose name and tradition go back to the People’s Party founded in 1895 in Rzeszów in Austrian Galicia. It has used the name Polish People’s Party since 1903, and in the interwar period several parties bore that name. The party led by Stanisław Mikołajczyk in 1945–1949 was the only legal opposition under the communist regime, and the present party, re-formed on 5 May 1990, remains active today.
In depth
The party’s direct forerunner was the People’s Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe), founded in Rzeszów in 1895 by independent peasant activists such as Jakub Bojko and Jan Stapiński and left-wing intellectuals such as Bolesław Wysłouch. In 1897 it sent the first deputies of an agrarian movement independent of clergy and nobility to the Austrian parliament in Vienna. From 1903 it used the name ‘Polish People’s Party’ and from then on openly demanded Polish independence. In 1913 it split into the Polish People’s Party ‘Piast’ and a left wing. In 1915 peasant groups in the Russian-ruled Kingdom of Poland also formed a Polish People’s Party, which took the name ‘Wyzwolenie’ in 1918. In the interwar period Wincenty Witos of ‘Piast’ was prime minister three times, and in 1931 ‘Piast’, ‘Wyzwolenie’ and the Peasant Party merged to form the People’s Party (SL).
During the Second World War former members took part in the government-in-exile and, at home, organised the Peasant Battalions, which cooperated with the Home Army. Mikołajczyk, who had been prime minister in exile, returned in June 1945, joined the provisional government and rebuilt the party. It became the only legal opposition under the communist regime but suffered intimidation, arrests and violence by the secret police, and the communists set up a rival ‘People’s Party’. The January 1947 election was rigged: according to the English-language source the communist bloc was declared to have won 80% and the PSL 10%, while the Polish-language source says the PSL received 28 of 444 seats. The Polish-language source states that about 80,000 local activists were arrested and 200 killed at that time. Mikołajczyk fled abroad in October 1947, and in 1949 the remainder of the party merged with the pro-communist People’s Party to form the United People’s Party (ZSL), a satellite of the Polish United Workers’ Party.
After the 1989 election Roman Malinowski of the ZSL made an agreement with Lech Wałęsa that ended the PZPR’s parliamentary majority and made Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government possible. On 5 May 1990 PSL ‘Odrodzenie’, the successor of the ZSL, merged with the Wilanów PSL founded in 1989 to form the present party. Its first leader, Roman Bartoszcze, won 7.15% in the 1990 presidential election, and in 1991 Waldemar Pawlak became leader. The party governed in coalition with the Democratic Left Alliance in 1993–1997, and Pawlak was prime minister in 1992 and 1993–1995.
From the mid-2000s the party moved towards the centre-right. It governed in coalition with Civic Platform in 2007–2015, was in opposition in 2015–2023 and rejoined a coalition government in 2023. It belongs to the European People’s Party, and its symbol is a four-leaf clover.