Center Civic Alliance

The Center Civic Alliance (Polish: Porozumienie Obywatelskie Centrum), abbreviated as POC, was a center-right electoral alliance of several political parties that participated in the 1991 Polish parliamentary election. The Center Civic Alliance was chiefly organized by the Centre Agreement, drawing in remnants of the Solidarity Citizens' Committees, independents, and Christian right parties, including the Polish People's Christian Forum "Homeland".[1] The alliance was created after its main component, the Centre Agreement, attempted to form a broad alliance supporting President Lech Wałęsa. However, the alliance quickly fell out favor of the president, failing to gain Wałęsa's approval. In its aftermath, Centre Agreement leader Jarosław Kaczyński was subsequently fired from his position as Chief of the Presidential Chancellery.[2]

For the 1991 elections, the Center Civic Alliance supported a pro-Western foreign policy, advocating membership into NATO, faster privatization, decommunization, and greater economic reforms.[3]

In the election's highly fractious aftermath, the Center Civic Alliance garnered 8.7% of the vote, taking 44 seats in the Sejm.[2] In the Senat, the Alliance took 9 seats.[1] For the coalition building talks that followed, the Alliance selected Jan Olszewski to lead the organization into forming a minority government, forging a coalition with the Peasants' Agreement, the Christian National Union and various independents.[1] However, Olszewski's government proved to be deeply unstable, falling within half a year.[2]

By the 1993 election, the Center Civic Alliance had dissolved, due to its former Centre Agreement core suffering from numerous party defections and splits into new independent groups.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jasiewicz, Krzysztof (April 1992). "From Solidarity to Fragmentation" (PDF). Journal of Democracy. 3 (2): 55–69. doi:10.1353/jod.1992.0024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Szczerbiak, Aleks (2001). Poles Together? : The Emergence and Development of Political Parties in Post-communist Poland. New York: Central European University Press. pp. 16–18. ISBN 9639241237.
  3. ↑ "Center Alliance". Country Studies. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
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