View source for Solidarity Electoral Action

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{{Infobox political party
| name = Solidarity Electoral Action
| native_name = {{native name|pl|Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność}}
| colorcode = {{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}
| logo = File:Logo_of_Akcja_Wyborcza_Solidarność.svg
| leader = {{ublist
 | [[Marian Krzaklewski]] (1996–2000)
 | [[Jerzy Buzek]] (2000–2001)
}}
| foundation = {{start date and age|1996|6|8|df=y}}
| dissolution = {{end date|2001|10|18|df=y}}<ref>Data zakończenia kadencji Sejmu z udziałem AWS. Kluby radnych AWS istniały nadal w samorządach (do 2002).</ref>
| ideology = [[Christian democracy]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parties-and-elections.de/poland.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050207000222/http://www.parties-and-elections.de:80/poland.html|title=Poland|archive-date=7 February 2005|date=2001|last=Nordsieck|first=Wolfram|website=Parties and Elections in Europe}}</ref><br>[[Conservatism]]<br>[[Anti-communism]]
| colours = {{ublist
 | {{color box|#FF0000}} [[Red]] (official)
 | {{color box|{{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}}} [[Gray (color)|Gray]] (customary)
}}
| predecessor = [[Solidarity Citizens' Committee]]<br>[[Centre Civic Alliance]]<br>[[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] lists
| religion = [[Catholicism]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989 |first=Sabrina P. |last=Ramet |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-71616-1 |page=155 |quote=Especially on Church and state issues, the UW was closer to the president than to the heavily Catholic AWS - and the Church was playing a very active role in Polish politics, especially since the country ratified the concordat with the Vatican in 1998, allowing, for example, for religious instruction in schools.}}</ref>
| position = [[Centre-right politics|Centre-right]]
| country = Poland
| website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20010831080548/http://www.aws.org.pl/ns/index.htm www.aws.org.pl] (archived)
}}{{Conservatism in Poland|Parties}}

'''Solidarity Electoral Action''' ({{langx|pl|Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność}}, AWS) was a coalition of political parties in [[Poland]], active from 1996 to 2001. AWS was the political arm of the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] trade union, whose leader [[Lech Wałęsa]] (also an AWS member), was [[President of Poland]] from 1990 to 1995, and the successor of the parties emerged from the fragmentation of the [[Solidarity Citizens' Committee]].

The coalition was led by [[Marian Krzaklewski]] and [[Jerzy Buzek]], who was [[Prime Minister of Poland]] from 1997 to 2001. Ideologically, it represented "an eclectic mix of socially conservative trade union-oriented corporatism, Christian Democracy, economically interventionist and liberal forms of Catholic nationalism and less overtly Church-inspired strands of liberal-conservatism";<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=de Lange|first1=Sarah L.|last2=Guerra|first2=Simona|date=December 2009|title=The League of Polish Families Between East and West, Past and Present|journal=Communist and Post-Communist Studies|volume=42|issue=2|pages=534}}</ref> its program was also described as a combination of "social conservatism and state interventionism".<ref>{{cite book |title=Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989 |first=Sabrina P. |last=Ramet |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-71616-1 |page=154}}</ref>

[[Law and Justice]] and [[Civic Coalition (party)|Civic Coalition]], the two dominant Polish political parties of today, had their roots in AWS.

==History==
On June 8, 1996, at the initiative of the NSZZ "Solidarność" trade union, the "Solidarność" Electoral Action was established as a coalition of over 30 [[Christian democracy|Christian-democratic]], [[Conservatism|conservative]] and [[Liberalism|liberal]] political parties, mostly from the [[Solidarity Citizens' Committee]], the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] trade union's political wing. Among them, there were the [[Christian National Union]], the [[Party of Christian Democrats]], the [[Centre Agreement]], the [[Conservative People's Party (Poland)|Conservative People's Party]] (formed in January 1997), the [[Peasants' Agreement]], the [[Movement for the Republic]] (until 1997), the [[Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms]] (until 1997) and the [[Confederation of Independent Poland]] (until 1998 and again since 2001). AWS's founding leader was [[Marian Krzaklewski]], who was also the leader of the Solidarity trade union, having succeeded to [[Lech Wałęsa]] in 1991. The formation of the AWS was a response to public expectations for a broad social movement that would unite the Polish right wing. The AWS was composed of right-wing parties, trade unions, associations, and non-governmental organizations originating from the Solidarity movement.{{sfn|Dobroński|2001|p=183}}

In the [[1997 Polish parliamentary election|1997 parliamentary election]], the AWS obtained 33.8% of the vote, 201 members of the [[Sejm]] and 51 of the [[Senate of Poland|Senate]]. After the election, AWS' member [[Jerzy Buzek]] formed a [[Cabinet of Jerzy Buzek|coalition government]], which comprised also the liberal [[Freedom Union (Poland)|Freedom Union]].

In December 1997, a new party, [[Social Movement]] (RS), was formed. It was joined by Krzaklewski, Buzek and several other non-party independents recommended by the Solidarity trade union and/or former members of the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Consequently, the Social Movement soon became the largest faction within the coalition. The other factions were those associated with the Christian National Union, the Party of Christian Democrats and the Conservative People's Party.<ref>archiwum.polityka.pl/art/kto-tu-rzadzi,363240.html</ref> In 1998, the Confederation of Independent Poland and a group that would form the [[Polish Agreement]] were excluded from the coalition.<ref>Antoni Dudek, ''Historia polityczna Polski 1989–2012'', 2013, p. 389</ref> From these groups, the [[League of Polish Families]] would later be formed. In 1999, the Party of Christian Democrats, the Centre Agreement and the Movement for the Republic merged into the [[Polish Christian Democratic Agreement]].

Reforms relating to domestic affairs, the entry to [[NATO]] in 1999 and the accession process to the [[European Union]] led to conflicts within the coalition.

In June 2000, the Freedom Union broke its alliance with the AWS<ref name="Paszkiewicz">Krystyna Anna Paszkiewicz, ''Partie i koalicje polityczne III Rzeczypospolitej. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego'', 2004, p. 230</ref> and Buzek continued to govern at the head of a minority government.

In the [[2000 Polish presidential election|2000 presidential election]], Krzaklewski was AWS' official candidate and won 15.6% of the vote, but a large chunk of the coalition, especially activists from the more liberal Conservative People's Party, had supported the independent candidate [[Andrzej Olechowski]],<ref>Bogdan Borowik, ''Partie konserwatywne w Polsce 1989–2001'', 2011, pp. 313-313</ref> who won 17.3% of the vote. As a result, [[Aleksander Kwaśniewski]] of the post-communist [[Democratic Left Alliance (Poland)|Democratic Left Alliance]] was elected president; Krzaklewski resigned from his position of AWS leader in December 2000 and was replaced by Buzek in January 2001.<ref name="Paszkiewicz"/>

Also in January 2001, AWS became a federation comprising the Solidarity trade union, the Social Movement, the Christian National Union, the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement and the Conservative People's Party. However, in March 2001 the Conservative People's Party withdrew from the AWS and most of it would later join [[Civic Platform]], which had been established in January 2001 by Olechowski, AWS splinter [[Maciej Płażyński]] and Freedom Union's [[Donald Tusk]]. More importantly, in May the Solidarity trade union withdrew too.<ref name="Paszkiewicz"/> In June most of the structure of the [[Centre Agreement]], which was originally a member of the AWS, along with right-wing dissidents from other AWS constituent parties formed [[Law and Justice]], under the leadership of [[Jarosław Kaczyński]] and [[Lech Kaczyński]]. Between May and July the AWS had included the [[Movement for Reconstruction of Poland]], which would later be associated with the League of Polish Families.

In the [[2001 Polish parliamentary election|2001 parliamentary election]], the AWS was formed mainly of four components: the Social Movement, the Christian National Union, the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement and the Confederation of Independent Poland. The coalition won 5.6% and no seats, as the electoral threshold was 8%.

Most of the remaining AWS members later joined either Civic Platform (these included both Krzaklewski and Buzek; the latter has been a [[member of the European Parliament|member]] of the [[European Parliament]] since 2004 and was its [[President of the European Parliament|President]] in 2009–2012) or Law and Justice. In 2002, the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement was merged into what remained of the Conservative People's Party. In 2004 the latter and the Social Movement were replaced by the [[Centre Party (Poland)|Centre Party]]. The Conservative People's Party was revived in 2007 and lasted until 2014, when it became part of [[Poland Together]]. The Christian National Union, most of whose members had joined the League of Polish Families, was active until 2010. Poland Together was transformed into [[Agreement (political party)|Agreement]] in 2017.

==International relations==
The [[International Republican Institute]], a [[Federal government of the United States|United States federal government]]-funded organisation loosely associated with the [[Republican Party (United States)|United States Republican Party]], claims credit for having played a major role in uniting the different political parties which came together to create the AWS. It claims to have provided training in political campaigning, communications training and research which helped organise and create the AWS. It also states that once the AWS was in government, it organised an advertising campaign for the Polish government in order to stop the AWS splitting up over internal tensions: "IRI initiated a post-election program that emphasized media and communications training for Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek's chancellory and cabinet".<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.iri.org/countries.asp?id=8369274321| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051015103000/http://www.iri.org/countries.asp?id=8369274321 | title=IRI in Poland| archive-date=2005-10-15 |access-date=2008-01-29}}</ref>

==Election results==

=== Presidential ===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" |Election
! rowspan="2" |Candidate
! colspan="2" |1st round
! colspan="2" |2nd round
|-
! # of overall votes
! % of overall vote
! # of overall votes
! % of overall vote
|-
! [[2000 Polish presidential election|2000]]
| [[Marian Krzaklewski]]
| 2,739,621
| 15.6 (#3)
| colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;" |
|}

===Sejm===
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Election
!Leader
! # of<br>votes
! % of<br>vote
! # of<br>overall seats won
! +/-
! Government
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[1997 Polish parliamentary election|1997]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Marian Krzaklewski]]
| rowspan="2" |4,427,373
| rowspan="2" |33.8 ('''#1''')
| rowspan="2" |{{Composition bar|201|460|hex={{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}}}
| rowspan="2" |New
| {{yes|<small>AWS-[[Freedom Union (Poland)|UW]] (1997-2000)</small>}}
|-
|{{yes|<small>AWS minority (2000-2001)</small>}}
|-
! [[2001 Polish parliamentary election|2001]]
| [[Jerzy Buzek]]
| 729,207
| 5.6 (#7)
| {{Composition bar|0|460|hex={{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}}}
| {{decrease}}201
| {{no|Extra-parliamentary}}
|}

===Senate===
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Election
! # of<br>overall seats won
! +/–
|-
! [[1997 Polish parliamentary election|1997]]
| {{Composition bar|51|100|hex={{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}}}
| New
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[2001 Polish parliamentary election|2001]]
| {{Composition bar|7|100|hex={{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}}}
| {{decrease}} 44
|-
| colspan="2" |<small>As part of the [[Senate 2001]] coalition, which won 15 seats.</small>
|}

===Regional assemblies===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Election
! % of<br>vote
! # of<br>overall seats won
! +/–
|-
! [[1998 Polish local elections|1998]]
| 33.3 ('''#1''')
| {{Composition bar|342|855|hex={{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}}}
|New
|-
! [[2002 Polish local elections|2002]]
| 3.4 (#6)
| {{Composition bar|17|561|hex={{party color|Solidarity Electoral Action}}}}
| {{Decrease}} 325
|}

==See also==
*[[POPiS]]
*[[Senate 2001]]

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}
===Bibliography===
*{{cite book |last1=Dobroński |first1=Adam |year=2001 |title=Białystok historia miasta |language=pl |publisher=Bialystok City Hall}}

{{Polish political parties}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1996 establishments in Poland]]
[[Category:2001 disestablishments in Poland]]
[[Category:Christian democratic parties in Poland]]
[[Category:Conservative parties in Poland]]
[[Category:Defunct Christian political parties]]
[[Category:Defunct conservative parties]]
[[Category:Defunct political party alliances in Poland]]
[[Category:International Republican Institute]]
[[Category:Liberal conservative parties in Poland]]
[[Category:Broad political opposition alliances]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 2001]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1996]]
[[Category:Solidarity (Polish trade union)]]