Polish legislative election, 1989
Encyclopedia
The Polish legislative election of 1989 was the tenth election
to the Sejm
, the parliament
of the People's Republic of Poland
, and eleventh in Communist Poland. It took place on 4 June (first round) and 18 June (second round).
Not all parliamentary seats were freely contested, but the resounding victory of the Solidarity opposition in the freely-contested races paved the way to the fall of Communism in Poland. In the election's aftermath, Poland became the first country of the Eastern Bloc
in which democratically elected representatives gained real power. Although the elections were not entirely democratic, they paved the way for creation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki
's cabinet and a peaceful transition to democracy, both in Poland and elsewhere in the Eastern Europe
, which was confirmed after the Polish parliamentary elections of 1991
.
broke out in the People’s Republic of Poland. The strikes, as well as street demonstrations, continued throughout spring and summer, ending in early September 1988. These actions shook the Communist
regime of the country to such an extent, that it was forced to begin talking about recognising Solidarity, an "unofficial" labor union that subsequently grew into a political movement. As a result, later that year, the regime decided to negotiate with the opposition, which opened way for the 1989 Round Table Agreement
.The second, much bigger wave of strikes (August 1988) surprised both the government, and top leaders of Solidarity, who were not expecting actions of such intensity. These strikes were mostly organized by local activists, who had no idea that their leaders from Warsaw had already started secret negotiations with the Communists.
An agreement was reached by the Communist Party
and the Solidarity (Solidarność in Polish) movement during the Round Table negotiations. The final agreement was signed on 4 April 1989. As a result, real political power was to be vested in a newly created bicameral legislature (Sejm
, with recreated Senate
), and it also recreated the office of president who would be the chief executive. Solidarność became a legitimate and legal political party: On 7 April 1989 the existing parliament (Sejm
) changed the election law and changed the constitution
(through the April Novelization
), and on 17 April, the Supreme Court of Poland reregistered Solidarity. Soon after the agreement was signed, Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa
travelled to Rome
, to be received by the Polish Pope John Paul II
.
Perhaps the most important decision reached during the Round Table talks was to allow for partially free elections to be held in Poland. (A fully free election was promised "in four years"). All seats to the newly recreated Senate of Poland were to be elected democratically, as were 161 seats (35 percent of the total) in Sejm. The remaining 65% of the seats were reserved for the Communist Party (Polish United Workers' Party
, PZPR) and its satellite parties (United People's Party
, ZSL, Democratic Party
, SD and communist-aligned tiny Catholic parties). In addition, all 35 seats elected via the country-wide list were reserved for the Party's candidates provided they gained a certain quota of support. This was to ensure that the most notable leaders of the Party were elected.
The outcome of the election was largely unpredictable, pre-electoral opinion polls: inconclusive. After all, Poland had not had a truly fair election since the 1920s, so there was little precedent to go by. The last contested elections were those of 1947
, in the midst of communist-orchestrated violent oppression and electoral fraud. This time, there would be open and relatively fair competition for many seats, both between communist and Solidarity candidates, and in some cases, between various communist candidates. While censorship
was still in force, the opposition was allowed to campaign much more freely then before, with a new newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza
, and reactivation of Tygodnik Solidarność
. Solidarity was also given access to televised media, being allocated 23% of electoral time on Polish Television. There were also no restrictions on financial support. It was clear that the Communists were unpopular, but there were no hard numbers as to how low support for them would actually fall. A rather flawed survey carried in April, days after the Round Table Agreement was signed, suggested that over 60% of the surveyed wanted Solidarity to cooperate with the government. Another survey a week later, about the Senate elections, showed that 48% of the surveyed supported the opposition, 14% the communist government, and 38% was undecided. In such a situation, both sides faced another unfamiliar aspect - the electoral campaign. The communists knew they were guaranteed 65% of the seats, and expected a difficult but winnable contest; in fact they were concerned about a possibility of "winning too much" - they desired some opposition, which would serve to legitimize their government on the internal and international levels. The communist government still had control over most major media outlets and employed sports and television celebrities as candidates, as well as successful local personalities and businesspeople. Some members of the opposition were worried that such tactics would gain enough votes from the less educated segment of the population to give the communists the legitimacy that they craved. Only a few days before June 4 the party Central Committee was discussing the possible reaction of the Western world should Solidarity not win a single seat. At the same time the Solidarity leaders were trying to prepare some set of rules for the non-party MPs in a communist-dominated parliament, as it was expected that the Solidarity would win not more than 20 seats. Solidarity was also complaining that the way electoral districts were drawn was not favourable towards it.
Results of Sejm elections:
Results of Senate elections:
The outcome was a major surprise to both the Party and Solidarity. Solidarity's electoral campaign has been much more successful than expected. The election of June 4, 1989 (and the second round of June 18) brought a landslide victory to Solidarność: 99% of all the seats in the Senate and all of the possible seats in the Sejm. Out of 100 seats in the Senate, 99 were won by Solidarity and 1 by an independent candidate. Out of 35 seats in the country-wide list for which Solidarity was not allowed to compete, only one was gained by the Party candidate (Adam Zieliński) and one by a ZSL satellite party candidate in the first round; none of the others attained the required 50% majority. The communist regained some seats during the second round, but the first one was highly humiliating to them; the psychological impact of it has been called "shattering". Norman Davies
estimates that the election showed real support for the communists in Poland to be between 3 and 4%. Altogether, out of 161 seats eligible, Solidarity took 160. The single Solidarity candidate not to be elected attributed his failure to missing an opportunity to take an electoral photo with Wałęsa, something all the other Solidarity candidates were able to do.
While Solidarity managed to secure 35% of the seats available to it, the remaining 65% was divided between the communist party and its satellite parties (37.6% to PZPR, 16.5% to ZSL, 5.8% to SD, with 4% distributed between newly created small communist-aligned Catholic parties, PAX and UChS). The distribution of seats among the PZPR and its allies was known beforehand.
The first round of voting took place on the same day that the Chinese communist government unleashed the Tiananmen Square massacre.
, felt secure with the 65% of the votes it was guaranteed for itself and its traditional allies. On July 19, the Sejm voted PZPR secretary, general Wojciech Jaruzelski
, for president, but his candidature passed by only one vote; in turn he nominated general Czesław Kiszczak for prime minister; they intended for Solidarity to be given a few token positions for appearances. The Solidarity leaders, however, managed to convince the former PZPR's allies from ZSL and SD (some of whom already owed a debt to Solidarity for endorsing them during the second round) to switch sides, and create a coalition government with Solidarity. PZPR, which had 37.6% of the seats, suddenly found itself in minority. Abandoned by Moscow, Kiszczak resigned on August 14, and on August 24 a Solidarity activist, Tadeusz Mazowiecki
, became the new prime minister, ushering a brief period described as "Your president, our prime minister".
The elected parliament would be known as the Contract Sejm
, from the "contract" between the Solidarity and the communist government which made it possible in the first place.
Although the elections were not entirely democratic, they paved the way for creation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki
's cabinet and a peaceful transition to democracy, which was confirmed after the Polish presidential election of 1990
(in which Lech Wałęsa
replaced Jaruzelski as the president) and the Polish parliamentary elections of 1991
.
On the international level, this election is seen as one of the major milestones in the fall of communism ("Autumn of Nations") in Eastern Europe.
Solidarity, however, did not stay in power long, quickly fracturing and replaced by other parties. In this context, the 1989 elections are often seen as the vote against communism, rather than for Solidarity.
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
to the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
, the parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
of the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, and eleventh in Communist Poland. It took place on 4 June (first round) and 18 June (second round).
Not all parliamentary seats were freely contested, but the resounding victory of the Solidarity opposition in the freely-contested races paved the way to the fall of Communism in Poland. In the election's aftermath, Poland became the first country of the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
in which democratically elected representatives gained real power. Although the elections were not entirely democratic, they paved the way for creation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.-Biography:Mazowiecki comes from a Polish...
's cabinet and a peaceful transition to democracy, both in Poland and elsewhere in the Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, which was confirmed after the Polish parliamentary elections of 1991
Polish parliamentary election, 1991
The Polish parliamentary election in 1991 to the Sejm and the Senate of Poland was held on October 27. In the Sejm elections, 27,517,280 citizens were eligible to vote, 11,887,949 of them cast their votes, 11,218,602 of those were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 43.2% of citizens cast...
.
Background
In May and August 1988 a massive waves of workers' strikes1988 Polish strikes
The 1988 Polish strikes were a massive wave of workers' strikes which broke out in 1988 in the People’s Republic of Poland. The strikes, as well as street demonstrations, continued throughout spring and summer, ending in early September 1988. These actions shook the Communist regime of the country...
broke out in the People’s Republic of Poland. The strikes, as well as street demonstrations, continued throughout spring and summer, ending in early September 1988. These actions shook the Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
regime of the country to such an extent, that it was forced to begin talking about recognising Solidarity, an "unofficial" labor union that subsequently grew into a political movement. As a result, later that year, the regime decided to negotiate with the opposition, which opened way for the 1989 Round Table Agreement
Polish Round Table Agreement
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...
.The second, much bigger wave of strikes (August 1988) surprised both the government, and top leaders of Solidarity, who were not expecting actions of such intensity. These strikes were mostly organized by local activists, who had no idea that their leaders from Warsaw had already started secret negotiations with the Communists.
An agreement was reached by the Communist Party
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
and the Solidarity (Solidarność in Polish) movement during the Round Table negotiations. The final agreement was signed on 4 April 1989. As a result, real political power was to be vested in a newly created bicameral legislature (Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
, with recreated Senate
Senate of Poland
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the 'Sejm'. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years, it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the...
), and it also recreated the office of president who would be the chief executive. Solidarność became a legitimate and legal political party: On 7 April 1989 the existing parliament (Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
) changed the election law and changed the constitution
Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland
The Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland was passed on 22 July 1952. Created by the Polish communists in the People's Republic of Poland, it was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution , and it superseded the post-war provisional Small Constitution of 1947 which, at its turn, had declared...
(through the April Novelization
April Novelization
April Novelization refers to the changes to the 1952 Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland, agreed in April 1989, in the aftermath of the Polish Round Table Agreement.Among key changes were:...
), and on 17 April, the Supreme Court of Poland reregistered Solidarity. Soon after the agreement was signed, Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
travelled to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, to be received by the Polish Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
.
Perhaps the most important decision reached during the Round Table talks was to allow for partially free elections to be held in Poland. (A fully free election was promised "in four years"). All seats to the newly recreated Senate of Poland were to be elected democratically, as were 161 seats (35 percent of the total) in Sejm. The remaining 65% of the seats were reserved for the Communist Party (Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
, PZPR) and its satellite parties (United People's Party
United People's Party (Poland)
The United People's Party was an agrarian political party in the People's Republic of Poland. It was formed on 27 November 1949 from the merger of the communist Stronnictwo Ludowe party with remnants of the independent People's Party of Stanisław Mikołajczyk .ZSL became - as intended from its very...
, ZSL, Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Poland)
The Democratic Party is a Polish centrist party. The party faced a revival in 2009, when it was joined by liberal politician Paweł Piskorski, formerly member of Civic Platform.-History:The party was established on April 15, 1939...
, SD and communist-aligned tiny Catholic parties). In addition, all 35 seats elected via the country-wide list were reserved for the Party's candidates provided they gained a certain quota of support. This was to ensure that the most notable leaders of the Party were elected.
The outcome of the election was largely unpredictable, pre-electoral opinion polls: inconclusive. After all, Poland had not had a truly fair election since the 1920s, so there was little precedent to go by. The last contested elections were those of 1947
Polish legislative election, 1947
The Polish legislative election of 1947 was held on January 19, 1947 in the People's Republic of Poland. The anti-communist opposition candidates and activists were persecuted and the eventual results were falsified...
, in the midst of communist-orchestrated violent oppression and electoral fraud. This time, there would be open and relatively fair competition for many seats, both between communist and Solidarity candidates, and in some cases, between various communist candidates. While censorship
Censorship in the People's Republic of Poland
Censorship in the People's Republic of Poland was primarily performed by the Polish Main Office of Control of Press, Publications and Shows , a governmental institution created in 1946 by the pro-Soviet Provisional Government of National Unity with Stalin's approval and backing, and renamed in 1981...
was still in force, the opposition was allowed to campaign much more freely then before, with a new newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza is a leading Polish newspaper. It covers the gamut of political, international and general news. Like all the Polish newspapers, it is printed on compact-sized paper, and is published by the multimedia corporation Agora SA...
, and reactivation of Tygodnik Solidarność
Tygodnik Solidarnosc
Tygodnik Solidarność is Polish conservative newspaper. Started and published by the Solidarity movement on 3 April 1981, it was banned by the People's Republic of Poland following the martial law declaration from 13 December 1981 and the thaw of 1989...
. Solidarity was also given access to televised media, being allocated 23% of electoral time on Polish Television. There were also no restrictions on financial support. It was clear that the Communists were unpopular, but there were no hard numbers as to how low support for them would actually fall. A rather flawed survey carried in April, days after the Round Table Agreement was signed, suggested that over 60% of the surveyed wanted Solidarity to cooperate with the government. Another survey a week later, about the Senate elections, showed that 48% of the surveyed supported the opposition, 14% the communist government, and 38% was undecided. In such a situation, both sides faced another unfamiliar aspect - the electoral campaign. The communists knew they were guaranteed 65% of the seats, and expected a difficult but winnable contest; in fact they were concerned about a possibility of "winning too much" - they desired some opposition, which would serve to legitimize their government on the internal and international levels. The communist government still had control over most major media outlets and employed sports and television celebrities as candidates, as well as successful local personalities and businesspeople. Some members of the opposition were worried that such tactics would gain enough votes from the less educated segment of the population to give the communists the legitimacy that they craved. Only a few days before June 4 the party Central Committee was discussing the possible reaction of the Western world should Solidarity not win a single seat. At the same time the Solidarity leaders were trying to prepare some set of rules for the non-party MPs in a communist-dominated parliament, as it was expected that the Solidarity would win not more than 20 seats. Solidarity was also complaining that the way electoral districts were drawn was not favourable towards it.
Results
The turnout was surprisingly low: only 62.7% in the first round and 25% in the second.| Party | Seats | |
|---|---|---|
| Polish United Workers' Party Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :... |
173 | |
| Solidarity Citizens' Committee Solidarity Citizens' Committee The Solidarity Citizens' Committee , also known as "Citizens' Electoral Committee" , previously named "Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa" was an legal political organisation of the democratic opposition in communist Poland... |
161 | |
| United People's Party United People's Party The United People's Party was a Singapore party formed by the former People's Action Party leader Ong Eng Guan in 1961. After it won a seat , in the 1963 General Elections, the party's existence was in doubt as Singapore was knocked out of the Malaysian federation by Malaysia... |
76 | |
| Democratic Party Democratic Party (Poland) The Democratic Party is a Polish centrist party. The party faced a revival in 2009, when it was joined by liberal politician Paweł Piskorski, formerly member of Civic Platform.-History:The party was established on April 15, 1939... |
27 | |
| PAX Association PAX Association The PAX Association was a pro-communist secular Catholic organization created in 1947 in the People's Republic of Poland. In 1953, PAX gave its support to the Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia, and took over the publication of the Catholic weekly magazine Tygodnik Powszechny – until the... |
10 | |
| Christian-Social Union | 8 | |
| Polish Catholic-Social Association | 5 |
Results of Senate elections:
| Party | Seats | |
|---|---|---|
| Solidarity Citizens' Committee Solidarity Citizens' Committee The Solidarity Citizens' Committee , also known as "Citizens' Electoral Committee" , previously named "Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa" was an legal political organisation of the democratic opposition in communist Poland... |
99 | |
| Independents | 1 |
The outcome was a major surprise to both the Party and Solidarity. Solidarity's electoral campaign has been much more successful than expected. The election of June 4, 1989 (and the second round of June 18) brought a landslide victory to Solidarność: 99% of all the seats in the Senate and all of the possible seats in the Sejm. Out of 100 seats in the Senate, 99 were won by Solidarity and 1 by an independent candidate. Out of 35 seats in the country-wide list for which Solidarity was not allowed to compete, only one was gained by the Party candidate (Adam Zieliński) and one by a ZSL satellite party candidate in the first round; none of the others attained the required 50% majority. The communist regained some seats during the second round, but the first one was highly humiliating to them; the psychological impact of it has been called "shattering". Norman Davies
Norman Davies
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...
estimates that the election showed real support for the communists in Poland to be between 3 and 4%. Altogether, out of 161 seats eligible, Solidarity took 160. The single Solidarity candidate not to be elected attributed his failure to missing an opportunity to take an electoral photo with Wałęsa, something all the other Solidarity candidates were able to do.
While Solidarity managed to secure 35% of the seats available to it, the remaining 65% was divided between the communist party and its satellite parties (37.6% to PZPR, 16.5% to ZSL, 5.8% to SD, with 4% distributed between newly created small communist-aligned Catholic parties, PAX and UChS). The distribution of seats among the PZPR and its allies was known beforehand.
The first round of voting took place on the same day that the Chinese communist government unleashed the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Aftermath
The communist party, the Polish United Workers' PartyPolish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
, felt secure with the 65% of the votes it was guaranteed for itself and its traditional allies. On July 19, the Sejm voted PZPR secretary, general Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski is a retired Polish military officer and Communist politician. He was the last Communist leader of Poland from 1981 to 1989, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's...
, for president, but his candidature passed by only one vote; in turn he nominated general Czesław Kiszczak for prime minister; they intended for Solidarity to be given a few token positions for appearances. The Solidarity leaders, however, managed to convince the former PZPR's allies from ZSL and SD (some of whom already owed a debt to Solidarity for endorsing them during the second round) to switch sides, and create a coalition government with Solidarity. PZPR, which had 37.6% of the seats, suddenly found itself in minority. Abandoned by Moscow, Kiszczak resigned on August 14, and on August 24 a Solidarity activist, Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.-Biography:Mazowiecki comes from a Polish...
, became the new prime minister, ushering a brief period described as "Your president, our prime minister".
The elected parliament would be known as the Contract Sejm
Contract Sejm
Contract Sejm is a term commonly applied to the Polish Parliament elected in the Polish parliamentary elections of 1989. The contract refers to an agreement reached by the Communist Party and the Solidarity movement during the Polish Round Table Agreement. The final agreement was signed on April...
, from the "contract" between the Solidarity and the communist government which made it possible in the first place.
Although the elections were not entirely democratic, they paved the way for creation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.-Biography:Mazowiecki comes from a Polish...
's cabinet and a peaceful transition to democracy, which was confirmed after the Polish presidential election of 1990
Polish presidential election, 1990
The 1990 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday, November 25 , and Sunday, December 9 . These were the first direct presidential elections in the history of Poland. Before World War II, presidents were elected by the Sejm, but the Sejm was abolished in 1952. The leader of the...
(in which Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
replaced Jaruzelski as the president) and the Polish parliamentary elections of 1991
Polish parliamentary election, 1991
The Polish parliamentary election in 1991 to the Sejm and the Senate of Poland was held on October 27. In the Sejm elections, 27,517,280 citizens were eligible to vote, 11,887,949 of them cast their votes, 11,218,602 of those were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 43.2% of citizens cast...
.
On the international level, this election is seen as one of the major milestones in the fall of communism ("Autumn of Nations") in Eastern Europe.
Solidarity, however, did not stay in power long, quickly fracturing and replaced by other parties. In this context, the 1989 elections are often seen as the vote against communism, rather than for Solidarity.
See also
- History of Poland (1945-1989)
- History of SolidarityHistory of SolidarityThe history of Solidarity , a Polish non-governmental trade union, begins in August 1980, at the Lenin Shipyards at its founding by Lech Wałęsa and others. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country...
- Thick line
- Balcerowicz plan