Civic_Coalition_(Poland)

Civic Coalition (Poland)

Civic Coalition (Poland)

Liberal electoral alliance in Poland

The Civic Coalition (Polish: Koalicja Obywatelska, KO)[lower-alpha 1] is a catch-all political alliance currently ruling in Poland. The alliance was formed around Civic Platform in opposition to the then-ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

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History

The Civic Coalition was originally created by the Civic Platform and Modern parties for 2018 local elections.[9] In June 2019, it was announced that the Civic Coalition would be slated to participate in the 2019 Polish parliamentary election and Civic Platform and Modern will form a joint parliamentary club.[10] The Greens announced at the end of July 2019 that they will participate in the elections as part of the Coalition.[11] In August 2019, the Silesian Autonomy Movement and other member organisations of the Silesian Electoral Agreement joined the Coalition.[12]

2018 local elections and present

In the 2018 local elections, the Civic Coalition received 26.97% of votes (second place after Law and Justice), winning 194 seats. In 8 voivodeships, it obtained the best result, and in the Pomerania the majority of seats. The coalition fared worse in the powiat and mayoral election. In the first round of 11 candidates of the Civic Coalition won elections for mayors of cities (including Rafał Trzaskowski in Warsaw). In addition, 15 candidates of the Civic Coalition went through to the second round, of which 8 were elected. Candidates of Civic Coalition were elected presidents of 19 cities, while it was placed second to the national-conservative Law and Justice in four.[13]

The committee has shown stronger electoral performances in large cities, such as, Warsaw, Poznań, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Łódź, and Kraków. Better than average results were achieved in West and North Poland (Recovered Territories). In the Opole Voivodeship, Civic Coalition received high support among the German minority. However, it has weaker support in the villages and in the conservative eastern Poland.[14]

In the 2019 parliamentary elections, the Coalition received most of its votes in major cities (as in 2018 local elections) and areas surrounding them. For the 2019 election, the coalition entered an agreement with Silesian Regional Party and Silesian Autonomy Movement, and activists and politicians associated with these Silesian parties were included on the Civic Coalition's electoral lists.[15] The electoral pact between the Civic Coalition and Silesian regionalists declared three demands – the strengthening of regional government, an increase in the share of tax revenues allocated to local governments, and the recognition of Silesian language as a regional language.[16]

Civic Platform already cooperated with Silesian Autonomy Movement on local level – in 2015, both parties entered a local coalition in the Silesian Voivodeship Sejmik.[17] In March 2023, Civic Coalition again pledged to recognize Silesian as a regional language.[18]

After exit polls for the 2023 parliamentary elections showed KO having taken a strong enough second place finish to oust the ruling Law and Justice party, KO leader Donald Tusk said, "I have been a politician for many years. I'm an athlete. Never in my life have I been so happy about taking seemingly second place. Poland won. Democracy has won."[19]

Ideology

The Civic Coalition is a catch-all coalition, that is made up of political parties that occupy political positions from the centre-left to the centre-right.[20][21] Media and academics have also described the coalition as centre-left,[22] centrist,[23] and centre-right.[24] It was described as centre-right by The Guardian,[25] Euractiv,[26] EUobserver,[27] The Telegraph,[28] Heinrich Böll Foundation,[29] and the Financial Times[30] during the 2023 Polish parliamentary election. The coalition's positions on social issues range from progressivism to Christian democracy. It is mainly oriented towards the principles of liberal conservatism[2] and liberalism,[1] and it aims to protect liberal democracy in Poland.[20] The coalition was also described as anti-immigration, mostly because of the rhetoric of its dominating party, centre-right Civic Platform.[4] The coalition also supports Poland's membership in the European Union and NATO.[21]

Composition

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Supported by

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Electoral performance

Sejm

Party groupings, who received most votes in powiats (Civic Coalition in orange) in 2023
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Senate

More information Year, Popular vote ...

Presidential

More information Election year, Candidate ...

2024 local

2024 Polish local elections to regional assemblies (constitutencies) PiS (blue), KO (orange)
More information Voivodeship, Seats ...

2018 local

2018 Polish local elections to regional assemblies (voivodeships) PiS (blue), KO (orange)
More information Voivodeship, Seats ...

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. The Civic Coalition's name that was used in the 2019 parliamentary election was the "Coalition Electoral Committee Civic Coalition PO .N iPL Greens" (Polish: Koalicyjny Komitet Wyborczy Koalicja Obywatelska PO .N iPL Zieloni).
  2. Andrzej Dziuba, Zygmunt Frankiewicz, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Wadim Tyszkiewicz
  3. Roman Jasiakiewicz (Kuyavia-Pomerania), Iwona Jelonek (Silesia), Marek Kopel (Silesia), Igor Łukaszuk (Podlaskie), Antoni Pikul (Podlaskie), Tadeusz Sławek (Silesia), Anna Synowiec (Lubusz), Henryk Szymański (Greater Poland)
  1. [N 1]
    The Civic Coalition electoral committee lists also include a handful of candidates who are members of the Silesian Autonomy Movement, Social Democracy of Poland, the Polish People's Party, Your Movement, Freedom and Equality, Democratic Left Alliance, and Labour Union, as well as independents.

References

  1. [1]
    • "Poland: Colors of Polish Opposition". Friedrich Naumann Foundation. 25 February 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
    • Bill, Stanley (18 May 2021). "The "Polish Deal": PiS strikes back as opposition falter". Notes From Poland. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
    • "Opposition parties face 'existential' battle in Poland and Hungary". The Guardian. 11 October 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  2. [2]
    • Barbora Krempaská; Lars-Andre Richter; Florentyna Martyńska (18 October 2023). "Victory for Democracy in Poland". Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Moreover, it is likely to hand over power to Donald Tusk, the leading candidate of the liberal-conservative Civic Coalition (Koalicja Obywatelska - KO).
    • Anna Noryskiewicz (16 October 2023). "Poland election could oust conservative party that has led country for 8 years". CBS News. The opposition liberal-conservative Civic Coalition of former Prime Minister Donald Tusk was the second-strongest force with 31.6% of the vote and 163 seats.
    • Piotr Zagórski (31 October 2023). "Poland Has Woken Up". El Pais. Donald Tusk's liberal-conservative Civic Coalition with 30.7% of the vote and 157 seats, the Third Way coalition (which unites the peasant party with another conservative party) with 14.4% and 65 seats, and the New Left with 8.6% and 26 seats will try to form a government backed by 248 MPs, 17 above the majority.
    • "Poland: PiS government steps down as parliament meets". Deutsche Welle. 13 November 2023. The alliance will put forth Tusk, the head of the liberal-conservative Civic Coalition (KO), as its candidate for prime minister; and Szymon Holowina of the centrist 2050 party, as candidate for speaker.
    • Wallace Jones (13 December 2023). "The government is installed and Tusk is sworn in as the new Polish Prime Minister". todaytimeslive.com. The three-way alliance consisting of Tusk's liberal-conservative Civic Coalition, the Christian-conservative Third Way and the left-wing Lewica alliance won a government majority in the October 15 parliamentary elections.
  3. [3]
    "2019 Election For Poland's Parliament: What You Need To Know". Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  4. [4]
  5. [5]
    "Michał Kołodziejczak wystartuje z listy Koalicji Obywatelskiej. "Stan wyższej konieczności"". Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  6. [6]
    Nicole Makarewicz (26 January 2023). ""GW": W koalicji z PO będzie Ruch Tak! Dla Polski". rmf24.pl (in Polish).
  7. [7]
    "Jeśli chcecie pomóc #KO w kampanii wyborczej, zadzwońcie pod ten numer. Możecie zgłosić, że chcecie powiesić baner, rozdawać ulotki, wieszać plakaty lub wesprzeć konkretnego kandydata w regionie (zostaniecie wtedy włączeni do drużyny tego kandydata). #POzwycięstwo #DrużynaTuska #PolskaWNaszychSercach". Retrieved 1 September 2023 – via Facebook.
  8. [8]
    "Tusk postawił Giertychowi ultimatum: musi wrócić do Polski". Retrieved 1 September 2023.
  9. [9]
    "PO i Nowoczesna razem do wyborów. Schetyna i Lubnauer podpisali porozumienie". WPROST.pl (in Polish). 7 March 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  10. [10]
    "PO i Nowoczesna połączą siły na wybory parlamentarne". Forsal.pl (in Polish). 8 June 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  11. [11]
    "Zieloni oficjalnie potwierdzili start w wyborach w ramach Koalicji Obywatelskiej". Polska Agencja Prasowa (in Polish). 30 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  12. [12]
    "Śląscy autonomiści dołączają do Koalicji Obywatelskiej". Wyborcza.pl (in Polish). 8 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  13. [13]
    "Wybory samorządowe 2018". wybory2018.pkw.gov.pl. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  14. [14]
    "Imperial borders still shape politics in Poland and Romania". The Economist. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  15. [15]
    Paweł Pawlik (9 August 2019). "Ruch Autonomii Śląska na listach Koalicji Obywatelskiej". onet.pl (in Polish).
  16. [16]
    Przemysław Jedlecki (25 August 2019). "Koalicja Obywatelska podpisała Pakt dla Śląska. Większe kompetencje i więcej pieniędzy dla regionu". wyborcza.pl (in Polish).
  17. [17]
    Mateusz Marmola (21 June 2023). "Koalicja Obywatelska wpadła w Kałużę: wybory do sejmiku województwa śląskiego" (in Polish). University of Silesia. p. 198. doi:10.34616/129950.
  18. [18]
    Krzysztof Konopka; Mateusz Mikowski (19 March 2023). "Tusk: język śląski będzie uznany za język regionalny". pap.pl (in Polish).
  19. [19]
    "Polish opposition leader Tusk declares win after exit poll shows ruling conservatives lose majority". ABC News. 15 October 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  20. [20]
    "Poland". Center for Strategic & International Studies. Archived from the original on 23 December 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  21. [21]
    "2019 election for Poland's parliament: What you need to know". The Krakow Post. 12 October 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  22. [22]
  23. [23]
  24. [24]
  25. [25]
    Tisdall, Simon (30 September 2023). "All eyes in Europe are focused on Poland's divisive election fight. But it's not a pretty sight". The Guardian.
  26. [26]
    Krzysztoszek, Aleksandra (14 April 2023). "Poles at the Polls: A pact against PiS?". euractiv.com.
  27. [27]
    Bobiński, Krszysztof (13 November 2023). "Kaczynski decries 'German' takeover of Polish parliament". euobserver.com.
  28. [28]
    Day, Matthew (16 October 2023). "Poland faces bitter battle as Donald Tusk's opposition gains edge in election". The Daily Telegraph.
  29. [29]
    Polakowski, Michał; Stolarek, Joanna Maria (27 September 2023). "October elections in Poland". boell.org.
  30. [30]
    Shotter, James (30 September 2023). "Kaczynski returns to frontline Polish politics in cabinet shake-up". Financial Times.
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