Polish Peasant Party: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Polish Peasant Party (Polish: Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe) is a political party in Poland. The party's name traces its tradition to an agrarian political party in Austro-Hungarian controlled Galicia, which has sent MPs to the parliament in Vienna.

After Poland regained independence, the party merged with agrarian groups from territories previously occupied by Imperial Russia and formed the first PSL led by Wincenty Witos, which was one of the most important political parties in the Second Polish Republic, until it was removed by the Sanacja. During World War II, PSL took part in forming the Polish government in exile and organizing. After the war the leader of PSL, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, returned to Soviet occupied Poland, hoping to recreate the party structures and create anti-communist opposition. To prevent that from happening the communists formed a puppet PSL-Piast and, after forging an important referendum, forced the real PSL to unite with it, forming Zjednoczone Stronnictowo Ludowe, a satellite of the communist party.

In 1989 this party took part in forming the first postwar noncommunist government in Poland along with Solidarity and in 1990 it changed its name to PSL. Later however it has repeatedly entered coallition with the postcommunist Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej.

Present day PSL

In the last parliamentry elections PSL has recived 9% of votes and formed a coalition with Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, which has since been broken. After this PSL moved towards the center. The party run in the 2004 European Parliament election as part of the European People's Party and has recived 6% votes, which gave it 4 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament.

Leaders

• Jaroslaw Kalinowski (vice prime minister and minister of agriculture from 2001 to 2003) He was the leader of the PSL from 1997 to 2004.
• Waldemar Pawlak (prime minister in 1992 and from 1993 to 1995).
• Janusz Wojciechowski Leader of the party from March 2004.

• Tadeusz Balcerowski, Radom
• Edmund Borawski, Białystok
• Arkadiusz Bratkowski, Chełm
• Leszek Bugaj, Kielce
• Bolesław Bujak, Rzeszów
• Jan Bury, Rzeszów
• Czesław Cieślak, Konin
• Zbigniew Deptuła, Siedlce
• Bronisław Dutka, Nowy Sącz
• Maria Dziuba, Radom
• Tadeusz Gajda, Sieradz
• Józef Gruszka, Kalisz - chairman of PKN Orlen investigation commission
• Andrzej Grzyb, Kalisz
• Stanisław Kalemba, Piła
• Jarosław Kalinowski, Siedlce - former party chairman, and Polish promie minister
• Stanisław Kalinowski, Gdynia
• Mieczysław Kasprzak, Krosno
• Eugeniusz Kłopotek, Bydgoszcz
• Zbigniew Komorowski, Płock
• Jan Kubik, Tarnów
• Józef Mioduszewski, Białystok
• Stefan Nowak, Kraków
• Krystyna Ozga, Piotrków Trybunalski
• Mirosław Pawlak, Kielce
• Waldemar Pawlak, Płock
• Janusz Piechociński, Warszawa
• Tadeusz Polański, Lublin
• Tadeusz Samborski, Legnica
• Marek Sawicki, Siedlce
• Zbigniew Sosnowski, Toruń
• Ryszard Stanibuła, Chełm
• Franciszek Stefaniuk, Chełm
• Józef Szczepańczyk, Kielce
• Leszek Świętochowski, Lublin
• Marian Wesołowski, Lublin
• Wiesław Woda, Tarnów
• Wojciech Zarzycki, Sieradz
• Józef Zych, Zielona Góra
• Stanisław Żelichowski, Elbląg

• Adam Woś, Krosno, now FKP
• Leszek Zieliński, Chrzanów, now FKP

• Zbigniew Kuźmiuk, politician, chairman of PSL parliamentary caucus
• Zdzisław Podkański, historian and politician, vicechairman of PSL, ex-viceminister of culture
• Czesław Siekierski, agriculture aconomist, ex-viceminister of agriculture
• Janusz Wojciechowski, lawyer and politician, chairman of PSL since March 2004