History of Poland - Third Polish Republic (1989–today)

Third Polish Republic (1989–today)

The "round-table" talks with the opposition began in February 1989. These talks produced the Round Table Agreement in April for partly open National Assembly elections. The failure of the communists at the polls produced a political crisis. The agreement called for a communist president, and on July 19, the National Assembly, with the support of a number of Solidarity deputies, elected General Wojciech Jaruzelski to that office. However, two attempts by the communists to form governments failed.

On August 19, President Jaruzelski asked journalist/Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to form a government; on September 12, the Sejm (national legislature) voted approval of Prime Minister Mazowiecki and his cabinet. For the first time in post-war history, Poland had a government led by noncommunists, setting a precedent to be soon followed by many other communist-ruled nations.

In December 1989, the Sejm approved the government's reform program to transform the Polish economy rapidly from centrally planned to free-market, amended the constitution to eliminate references to the "leading role" of the Communist Party, and renamed the country the "Republic of Poland." The Polish United Workers' (Communist) Party dissolved itself in January 1990, creating in its place a new party, Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland.

In October 1990, the constitution was amended to curtail the term of President Jaruzelski.

In the early 1990s, Poland made great progress towards achieving a fully democratic government and a market economy. In November 1990, Lech Wałęsa was elected president for a five-year term. In December Wałęsa became the first popularly elected President of Poland.

Poland's first free parliamentary election was held in 1991. More than 100 parties participated, and no single party received more than 13% of the total vote. In 1993 parliamentary election the "post-communist" Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) received the largest share of votes. In 1993 the Soviet Northern Group of Forces finally left Poland.

In November 1995, Poland held its second post-war free presidential election. SLD leader Aleksander Kwaśniewski defeated Wałęsa by a narrow margin—51.7% to 48.3%.

In 1997 parliamentary election two parties with roots in the Solidarity movement — Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) and the Freedom Union (UW) — won 261 of the 460 seats in the Sejm and formed a coalition government. In April 1997, the new Constitution of Poland was finalized, and in July put into effect, replacing the previously used amended communist statute.

Poland joined NATO in 1999. Elements of the Polish Armed Forces have since participated in the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War.

In the presidential election of 2000, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the incumbent former leader of the SLD, was re-elected in the first round of voting. After September 2001 parliamentary election SLD (a successor of the communist party) formed a coalition with the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL) and the leftist Labor Union (UP).

Poland joined the European Union in May 2004. Both President Kwaśniewski and the government were vocal in their support for this cause. The only party decidedly opposed to EU entry was the populist right-wing League of Polish Families (LPR).

After the fall of communism, the government policy of guaranteed full employment had ended and many large unprofitable state enterprises were closed or restructured. Beginning in 1989, the Balcerowicz Plan and liberal economic policies in general had been implemented with the support of the leading Solidarity figures.

The restructuring and other economic woes of the transition period caused the unemployment to be at times as high as 20%. With the EU access, the gradual opening of West European labor markets to Polish workers, combined with the domestic economic growth, led to marked improvement in the employment situation (currently at around or above 10%) in Poland.

September's 2005 parliamentary election was expected to produce a coalition of two center-right parties, PiS (Law and Justice) and PO (Civic Platform). During the bitter campaign PiS overtook PO, gaining 27% of votes cast and becoming the largest party in the Sejm, ahead of PO with 24%. In the presidential election in October the early favorite, Donald Tusk, leader of the PO, was beaten 54% to 46% in the second round by the PiS candidate Lech Kaczyński. Coalition talks ensued simultaneously with the presidential elections, but negotiations ended up in a stalemate and the PO decided to go into opposition. PiS formed a minority government which relied on the support of smaller populist and agrarian parties (Samoobrona, LPR) to govern. This became a formal coalition, but its deteriorating state made early parliamentary election necessary.

In the 2007 parliamentary election, the Civic Platform was most successful (41.5%), ahead of Law and Justice (32%), and the government of Donald Tusk, the chairman of PO, was formed. PO governs in a parliamentary majority coalition with the smaller Polish People's Party (PSL).

In the current great worldwide economic downturn, triggered and exemplified in particular by the 2008 USA collapse and bailout of the banking system, the Polish economy has weathered the crisis, in comparison with many European and other countries, relatively unscathed. Worrisome signs, signalling upcoming difficulties are however present, and the European sovereign debt crisis, unraveling some of Europe's economies, is expected to negatively affect also the economy of Poland, currently not a member of the eurozone.

The social price paid by the Poles for the implementation of liberal free market economic policies has been the sharply more inequitable distribution of wealth and the associated impoverishment of large segments of the society. According to 2010 Eurostat data, 14% of Poles were "severely materially deprived", compared to the 8% EU average. This however represents the steepest of any European country drop in poverty rates over the past several years (it has taken place since Poland joined the EU).

Poland's president Lech Kaczyński and all aboard died in a plane crash on April 10, 2010 in western Russia, near Smolensk. President Kaczyński and other prominent Poles were on the way to the Katyn massacre anniversary commemoration.

In the second final round of the Polish presidential election on July 4, 2010, Bronisław Komorowski, Acting President, Marshal of the Sejm and a Civic Platform politician, defeated Jarosław Kaczyński by 53% to 47%.

The Smolensk tragedy brought into the open deep divisions within the Polish society and became a destabilizing factor in Poland's politics.

Poland's relations with its European neighbors have been good or improving, with Belarus being a sore point. The Eastern Partnership summit, hosted in September 2011 by Poland, the holder of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, resulted in no agreement on near future expansion of the Union to include the several considered Eastern European and Caucasus states, formerly Soviet republics. The European Union membership for at least some of those states, including Ukraine, has long been a goal of Polish diplomacy. Poland has also been promoting NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, a plan seen by Russia as threatening to its security and so far not supported by a majority of Ukrainian voters. For a number of years, Poland and Russia have disagreed on the planned NATO missile defense system in Europe, in which Poland has sought to be an active participant, and which Russia opposes.

The 2011 parliamentary election results were generally an affirmation of the current distribution of political forces. The Civic Platform won over 39% of the votes, Law and Justice almost 30%, Palikot's Movement 10%, the Polish People's Party and the Democratic Left Alliance over 8% each. The new element was the successful debut of the left-of-center movement of Janusz Palikot, a maverick politician, which resulted in decreased electoral appeal of the Democratic Left Alliance.

Poland's foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, delivered a speech on 28 November 2011 in Berlin, in which he emphatically appealed to Germany and other European Union countries for closer economic and political integration and coordination, to be accomplished through a more powerful central government of the Union. Sikorski feels that decisive action and substantial reform, led by Germany, are necessary to prevent a collapse of the euro and subsequent destabilization and possible demise of the European Union. His remarks, directed primarily at the German audience, encountered hostile reception in Poland from Jarosław Kaczyński and his conservative parliamentary opposition, who accused the minister of betraying Poland's sovereignty and demanded his ouster and trial. Sikorski identified in his speech several areas important to Polish traditionalists, which, he said, should permanently remain within the domain of individual national governments.

As of 9 December 2011 UE summit in Brussels, the British opposition prevented any changes to the EU Treaty. All the remaining UE governments, including the actively involved Polish delegation led by Prime Minister Tusk, indicated support for the new "fiscal compact" and greater coordination agreement, intended to impose financial discipline on member states and to cure the present instability in the eurozone. The agreed reforms will be implemented in the laws of individual states.

In January 2012, Poland's Prosecutor General's office initiated investigative proceedings against Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the former Polish intelligence chief. Siemiątkowski is charged with facilitating the alleged CIA detention operation in Poland, where foreign suspects may have been tortured in the context of the War on Terror. The alleged constitutional and international law trespasses took place when Leszek Miller, presently member of parliament and leader of the Democratic Left Alliance, was Prime Minister (2001-2004), and he may also be subjected to future legal action. Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the President of Poland at that time, acknowledged knowing about and consenting to (together with the Prime Minister) the secret "CIA prisons".

During the Russian Patriarch's visit to Poland on August 16–19, 2012, Kirill I, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and Archbishop Józef Michalik, President of the Catholic Conference of Polish Bishops, signed a historic Polish-Russian church message on reconciliation and mutual forgiveness.