Coalition for the Republic

Political party
  RedSloganCoalition of clean hands.
(Polish: Koalicja czystych rąk.)

The Coalition for the Republic (Polish: Koalicja dla Rzeczypospolitej, KdR) was a Christian-democratic electoral alliance in Poland. It consisted of five parties - the Movement for the Republic (RdR), Solidarność 80, National Christian Movement "Polish Action" (Akcja Polska), Freedom Party (PW), Upper Silesian Christian Democracy (GChD), Party of Polish Democracy (SDP), Polish People's Christian Forum "Fatherland" ("Ojcowizna") and the Patriotic Forum of Fighting Poland[1].[2]

History

The Coalition was initially formed on the 6th of July, 1993, after a failure of two-month long coalition talks between RdR and the Centre Agreement (PC), the original party of RdR chairman Jan Olszewski. A failed attempt at bringing the Polish People's Party - Peasants' Agreement (PSL-PL) into the coalition left it as the weakest of the three "center-right" coalitions (other ones being the Catholic Electoral Committee "Fatherland" (KKW or "Ojczyzna") and Centre Agreement – Polish Union (PC-ZP)) running in the 1993 Polish parliamentary election.[3]

KdR ran a campaign under the slogan "coalition of clean hands" (Polish: „Koalicja czystych rąk"). The campaign was notably similar to PC-ZP, both attacking the "neocommunist" Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) and "pseudoliberal" Democratic Union (UD) and Liberal Democratic Congress (KLD), the Balcerowicz plan aswell as supporting lustration.

The coalition only contested one election, the 1993 parliamentary election, winning 2.70% of valid votes. Despite de-facto being a coalition, it registered as a party, thus only needing 5% of valid votes to cross the electoral threshold, which it failed to pass regardless. Their failure to pass the threshold contributed to the SLD's landslide victory in the election.

Electoral results

Sejm

Election year # of
votes 		% of
vote 		# of
overall seats won 		Government
1993 371,923 2.70 (#14)
0 / 460
 Extra-parliamentary

Senate

Election # of
votes 		% of
votes 		# of
overall seats won
1993 290,361 1.06 (#15)
0 / 460

References

  1. ^ "Forum Patriotyczne Polski Walczącej". 1993. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  2. ^ Stodolny, Marek (24 June 2015). Ruch Konserwatywno–Ludowy w III RP (in Polish). Poznań: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu.
  3. ^ Millard, Frances (1994-09-01). "The Polish Parliamentary Election of September, 1993". Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  • v
  • t
  • e
Represented in
the Sejm
Represented in
the Senate
Represented in the
European Parliament
Other existing parties
and
political movements
Defunct parties
Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth
Pre-war and
inter-war eras
Communist era
Modern era
italic font – electoral alliances and/or popular fronts
*: Zbigniew Ajchler
**: Piotr Adamowicz et al.,
***: Marek Biernacki
****: not currently registered as a party