| Libertas Polska | |
| Colorcode: |
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| Leader: | Originally Daniel Pawłowiec later Declan Ganley[1] [2] |
| Foundation: | ~2006/7 (as Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci) 2 February 2009.[3] (announced as Libertas Polska) 24 February 2009 (renamed to Libertas Polska) |
| Dissolved: | 2014 |
| Ideology: | Anti-Lisbon Treaty Euroscepticism |
| Headquarters: | Aleje Ujazdowskie 22/3, 00-478 Warsaw |
| Colours: | blue, gold |
| European: | Libertas Party Limited |
| Europarl: | none |
Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP) was a political party in Poland. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Libertas Party Limited, the organization founded by Declan Ganley.
Before the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, three LPR then-members, Cyprian Gutkowski, Daniel Pawłowiec and Sebastian Jargut, registered a party called Lewica i Demokraci, (Left and Democrats). The party was a party-in-name-only designed to frustrate the party of the same name, which was forced to register itself as SLD+SdPl+PD+UP – Lewica i Demokraci (LiD) instead.
Declan Ganley visited[4] [5] Poland on Friday 9 January 2009 to discuss terms for the formation of the Poland branch of Libertas with representatives from Forward Poland (NP), PSL Piast and Prawica Rzeczypospolitej (PR).[6] Ganley insisted that the Poland Libertas party used the word "Libertas" in the title but the party politicians were concerned that the non-Polish name would deter voters.[6] The name "Forward Poland – Libertas" (Naprzód Polsko – Libertas) was suggested as a compromise name[6] should NP decide to ally with Libertas.
On 1 February 2009, Ganley spoke to the inaugural Warsaw meeting of the Referendum Committee (Komitetu Referendalnego), an organization advocating that referendums be held prior to treaty ratifications by Poland.[7] The speech was filmed and placed on YouTube (prolog, part 1, part 2). The meeting attendance was estimated at 700[7] or 500[8] and attendees included[8] [9] Mirosław Orzechowski (LPR), Zdzisław Podkański (PSL), Krzysztof Filipek and Danuta Hojarska (once Samoobrona, now Party of Regions) and Antoni Tyszka (UPR), Konrad Bonisławski (head of All-Polish Youth) and Krzysztof Bosak (former LPR MP).
On 2 February 2009[8] a press conference was given[10] in which the head of the Referendum Committee, former LPR MP Daniel Pawłowiec, was named as head[11] [12] [10] of Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP), and the Referendum Committee offices at Aleje Ujazdowskie 22/3, 00-478 Warsaw were named as the headquarters of Libertas Poland.[10]
Although the party had been announced, it did not exist under that name at that point: registering a political party in Poland is a lengthy process. Instead, Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci was renamed to Libertas Polska, the new name being registered on 24 February 2009[13]
On 11 February 2009, Libertas Poland held a press conference concerning the emergency meeting of the European Council.[14] In that press conference, Libertas Poland demanded that the Polish government should reduce VAT following the UK example,[14] propose an EU joint energy policy,[14] and reopen the labor markets of Germany and Austria to Polish workers.[14]
Libertas attempted to get other parties to affiliate (run candidates under a common list) to it. Libertas's search for affiliates was assisted by Roman Giertych[15] and Wojciech Wierzejski,[16] with Wierzejski resigning from the leadership of LPR to devote his time to the unification of the Polish patriotic, nationalist, conservative and Christian right under a Libertas list.[17]
The parties that affiliated with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu are as follows:
Forward Poland (Naprzód Polsko, NP) originally rejected[18] cooperation with Libertas because they felt that Libertas did not reflect their desire for a more independent Poland.[18] PSL Piast (a.k.a. Stronnictwo "Piast") also initially rejected[18] cooperation with Libertas for similar reasons to Forward Poland[18] and because the party did not have a Polish name. Instead, the two parties planned to run their own combined list (Naprzód Polsko – Piast) in the 2009 elections.[19]
But the two parties eventually decided to affiliate to Libertas[20] and candidates from the two parties appeared on the Libertas lists.[21] The decision to affiliate was not unanimously welcomed within the two parties.[15]
There was a controversy involving allegations of forged signatures in constituency number 11[22] and the Naprzód Polsko – Piast list did field candidates in that constituency.[19]
Partia Regionów considered running under a Libertas list.[23] Partia Regionów's president, Bolesław Borysiuk, negotiated cooperation with Libertas Polska[24] and he announced in PR's inaugural Congress that PR's candidates were likely to run under a Libertas list alongside Libertas Polska,[25] and this did in fact occur.[21]
As of 9 March 2009, League of Polish Families (LPR) were still considering whether to run under a Libertas list or form their own, either by themselves or with UPR, or Prawica Rzeczypospolitej.[26] But by 19 March, Ganley was distancing Libertas from LPR.[27] Nevertheless, Libertas and LPR were still in ongoing discussions on Friday 27 March 2009[28] about running under a common list. By 21 April 2009, LPR had agreed to affiliate to Libertas[20] and their candidates did run under the Libertas list[21] [29] instead of their own list[30] in the 2009 European Parliament elections.
Organizacja Narodu Polskiego – Liga Polska affiliated to Libertas.[31] [32] [33]
Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe (ZChN) affiliated to Libertas.[31] [32] [34]
The parties that considered affiliating with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu, but did not, are as follows:
Prawica Rzeczypospolitej considered Libertas to have Eurofederalist aspects and rejected Libertas accordingly.[35] No Prawica Rzeczypospolitej candidates appeared on the Libertas list in the 2009 European Parliament elections.[21]
Law and Justice (PiS) personnel[1] were mentioned by Pawłowiec as possible Libertas candidates, although no names were given.[1] Libertas tried to get PiS to affiliate to it[36] but it did not do so,[37] and instead ran a full list of its own,[38] although one of its members (Slawomir Ligecki[39]) did defect to Libertas.
| Person | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Declan Ganley | President | |
| Daniel Pawłowiec | Originally President, later vice-president. Former LPR MP | |
| Artur Zawisza | Vice-president and former PR MP |
On 20 March 2009, journalist Hanna Lis refused to do a TVP interview with Declan Ganley.[40] Controversy promptly arose revolving around LPR's Roman Giertych[40] and whether LPR were encouraging coverage of Libertas on TVP[40] via Piotr Farfał the President of TVP[41] and a member of LPR.[40] Hanna Lis,[42] Piotr Kraśko,[42] and Jarosław Kulczycki,[42] the three presenters of a nightly news program, took sick leave in protest, forcing the news to be presented by Marcin Szczepański.[42]
See also: List of Libertas list candidates at the 2009 European Parliament elections and European Parliament election, 2009 (Poland).
Libertas Poland started work on/before 20 March 2009 on collecting sufficient signatures to field candidates,[1] [2] although the number and names of those candidates was not specified.[1] [2] By 2 May 2008, a Libertas Election Committee (Komitet Wyborczy Libertas) had been formed and its list consisted of 130[31] candidates, later falling to 128. The breakdown was as follows:[31]
| Party/Movement of which candidates were current/former members | Acronym | Number of candidates on Libertas list | Number of first-placed candidates on Libertas list | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Law and Justice | PiS | 1 | 0 | |
| Organizacja Narodu Polskiego - Liga Polska | ? | 1 | 0 | |
| Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe | ZChN | 1 | 0 | |
| Radio Maryja | n/a | 2 | 2 | |
| Libertas Polska | LP | 3 | 2 | |
| Forward Poland | NP | 6 | 2 | |
| Partia Regionów | PR | 6 | 1 | |
| Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe "Piast" | PSL Piast | 13 | 1 | |
| Liga Polskich Rodzin | LPR | 40 | 2 | |
| other | n/a | 57 | 3 |
See main article: Libertas.eu.