League and Self-Defense (, LiS — also means fox in Polish) was a short-lived Polish political alliance between the left-wing populist Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona) and the national conservative Christian right League of Polish Families (LPR) in July 2007. The alliance was directed against right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) that first formed a coalition with both parties, but then gradually marginalized them and shuffled away their ministers. The coalition was marked by mutual distrust as the parties had radically different outlooks, tied together by Euroscepticism, opposition to capitalism and aversion to PiS. The coalition was only polling 6% (below the 8% threshold for coalitions), and was dissolved by September 2007, shortly before the election. In the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, both LPR and Samoobrona failed to reach the 5% electoral threshold, losing all their 92 Sejm and 10 Senate seats. The downfall of both parties is considered to have been caused by PiS appropriating their political rhetoric.
Despite being a coalition of a far-left Samoobrona and a far-right LPR, League and Self-Defense produced a coherent program that emphasized the common points of both parties, such as their opposition to the European Union, NATO, the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan. Both parties also shared a voter base that wished for the return of security of the socialist welfare state and protection from the risks of open markets. This allowed the coalition to position itself as anti-capitalist. The coalition had a basic social program based on "protection of life from the moment of conception until natural death", anti-corruption and "zero tolerance" reforms for schools. Economically, the coalition sought a halt to privatization, empowering trade unions and greatly expanding welfare, social pensions and the minimum wage, as well as tackling foreign capital and big business. Given its higher amount of seats and popular support, the left-wing Samoobrona dominated the coalition, which gave League and Self-Defense an ideologically left-wing profile, especially economically.
Origins.
LPR and Samoobrona.
Initially, the two parties that would found League and Self-Defence had nothing in common. Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona) was considered a far-left, socialist party similar to neocommunism ideologically. Polish political scientist described it as a "radical-populist" party that combined agrarianism, nationalism and "Soviet-style" communism. Samoobrona cooperated with fellow left-wing parties, first in the anti-austerity coalition Social Alliance for the 1998 Polish local elections, and then by supporting the 2001-2003 government of social-democratic, post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL), as well as forming local coalitions with the SLD. Samoobrona withdrew its support of the SLD-PSL government and broke all of its agreements with SLD following the decision of the SLD to forcefully break up farmer protests and continue privatization measures. PSL itself also withdrew from the coalition after SLD lifted custom duties meant to protect Polish agriculture.
In contrast, the League of Polish Families was a far-right, Catholic nationalist party that was a continuation of the National Party, an idiosyncratic party that attempted to unite nationalist movements and continue the legacy of Roman Dmowski and his movement of National Democracy. LPR mostly focused on social, cultural and moral issues, along with opposition to the European Union. In contrast to the traditionally laissez-faire, free-market outlook of Dmowski and his nationalist movement, the LPR denounced the post-communist transition to capitalism in Poland as a "socio-economic experiment" that had "greatly deleterious effects on the Polish families". LPR campaigned on an unambiguously right-wing, Catholic nationalist and traditionalist program, appealing to patriotic, nationalist and anti-capitalist values; it promoted Catholic values as "moral and material protectors" and presented itself as the defender of Polish national interests which, according to the party, were compromised by the EU, foreign capital, big companies, privatization and social welfare cuts.
Ideological overlap.
The anti-capitalism of LPR allowed for some overlap, on both partisan and voter level. According to political scientists, Tomasz Zarycki and George Kolankiewicz, LPR "held objectively left-wing views on issues such as privatisation, state intervention in the economy and redistribution of wealth", combined with "strong opposition to Polish EU membership and, more generally, a nationalist and anti-cosmopolitan worldview." Samoobrona, meanwhile, presented itself as the defender of the working class, the weak, and the needy; Polish farmers and the poor began to consider Lepper their advocate. To this end, both Samoobrona and LPR appealed to those who considered themselves "losers" of the capitalist transformation and felt marginalized and excluded by the socioeconomic changes that dismantled the socialist system in Poland. Samoobrona focused almost exclusively on socioeconomic interests and had a vague cultural outlook that attempted to appeal to socially marginalized groups, including LGBT (along with SLD, Samoobrona was the only party to support same-sex civil unions in 2004), but at the same time avoid alienating the socially conservative working class. However, Samoobrona and LPR shared their opposition to the European Union and globalization. Given how Samoobrona considered SLD to have betrayed left-wing values by 2003, both LPR and Samoobrona began to see themselves as the only alternative to the establishment and economic liberalism.
People's National Bloc.
League and Self-Defense came directly from the Samoobrona's concept of "People's National Bloc", or "National-Agrarian Bloc" (). The concept of this bloc first appeared in 1999 and was actively pursued with Samoobrona until 2001; it initially referred to a possible alliance of Samoobrona with Polish People's Party as well as left-wing trade unions, such as August 80. Alliance talks were temporarily abandoned after the decision of Polish People's Party to form a government with SLD, although Samoobrona supported this government. After the SLD-PSL government fell in 2003, the concept was again brought up by Samoobrona. In the 2004 European Parliament election in Poland, LPR massively overperformed, finishing second. At this point, the concept of the "National-Agrarian Bloc" was modified to be a coalition of Samoobrona, Polish People's Party and League of Polish Families. Between 2004-2005, the prospect of this coalition appeared likely as even the leader of PSL, Janusz Wojciechowski, was supportive of the idea. However, this plan was foiled by the 2005 Polish parliamentary election, in which LPR and PSL underperformed; a Samoobrona-PSL-LPR would only have 115 seats, half of the amount needed to form a majority government.
Before Samoobrona and LPR agreed to form a coalition with Law and Justice in May 2006, Law and Justice ruled as a minority government, which sparked suggestions of early elections to allow a majority government. Law and Justice tried to form a coalition with neoliberal Civic Platform, in what would have been known as POPiS. In January 2006, Samoobrona and LPR declared that they would run together in case of early election, calling it "People's National Self-Defence-LPR Bloc" (), effectively becoming the "proto-LiS" coalition. PSL was initially hesitant towards reactivating the concept of the "People's National Bloc", stating that it would not run together with LPR and Samoobrona to Sejm, but that it is interested in organizing such coalition for the Senate. The coalition was mocked by Donald Tusk, the leader of Civic Platform, who called it "the coalition of the weak" and stated that in case talks with PiS fail, early election would take place on 26 March 2006. Ultimately, PSL changed its stance and stated it interest in forming the "People's National Bloc" together with Samoobrona and LPR. While the early 2006 election ultimately did not take place and both Samoobrona and LPR formed a coalition with PiS, this made both parties consider themselves 'natural partners'. LPR was greatly influenced by its talks with Samoobrona, abandoning its ties to National Democracy, moderating its image and putting an emphasis on agrarian issues.
History.
Background.
The decision for the synthesis of the two parties arose following a crisis within Poland's ruling three party coalition, of the dominant Law and Justice (PiS) party, and junior partners Samoobrona and LPR. On 9 July, the leader of Samoobrona, Andrzej Lepper, was dismissed from his position as Minister for Agriculture following a secret investigation by the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) which attempted to link him and his department to corruptive practices. Lepper protested his innocence and claimed to have been the victim of a politically motivated 'sting' operation, initiated by PM Kaczynski and PiS. He demanded that a parliamentary inquiry be conducted to investigate the legality and motivation of the CBA operation mounted against him.
Following his dismissal, Lepper participated in numerous conferences in which he accused Law and Justice politicians of illegal actions. He also filed a denunciation lawsuit against the minister coordinator of services Zbigniew Wassermann, while also stating that the head of the Central Anticorruption Bureau, Mariusz Kamiński, broke the law by initiating the sting operation against him. He lastly attacked the leader of Law and Jutice and prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński of "unbelievable cynicism", as Kaczyński had long talks with Lepper about the future of the coalition, knowing that he would soon dismiss him.
Formation.
Lepper's stance drew him support from his own Samoobrona party and the LPR. On 16 July 2007, a merger of the two parties was announced at a press conference conducted by Lepper and his LPR counterpart, Roman Giertych. The nature of this new 'LiS' was not made clear, and the leaders could not give any specifics as to whether LiS would take the form of a newly unified party or simply an electoral alliance of two autonomous parties. It was indicated however, that the platform of this new alliance would be mainly eurosceptic and anti-privatization.
According to the declarations of both parties involved, the new grouping would preserve the identity of both parties. On the creation of the new party, Lepper stressed that "great injustice has been done to Samoobrona" and that one of the demands of the new grouping will be to investigate the circumstances regarding the sting operation against him. On 16 July 2007, the presidencies of both political groupings met. On 17 July 2007, the party's executive board was appointed, with Andrzej Lepper as president and Roman Giertych as chairman. On the same day, the documents for the registration of the new party were filed with the court. Party board members from the LPR included Radosław Parda, Deputy Education Minister Mirosław Orzechowski, Deputy Leader of the League Wojciech Wierzejski, while from the side of Samoobrona, board members included Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Genowefa Wiśniowska and acting head of the club Krzysztof Sikora.
After the formation of the League and Self-Defense, Law and Justice began making demands that both Samoobrona and LPR withdraw from the idea of setting up a commission to investigate the CBA action, after which Andrzej Lepper lost his deputy prime minister's seat. Law and Justice then started replacing the ministers of the parties in the government, stripping LPR and Samoobrona of influential positions such as labour ministry ad minister of agriculture. The government lost a lot of support, especially since it also abolished ministries created specifically for the LPR and Samoobrona, such as the ministry of maritime economy and the ministry of construction. Law and Justice defended the dismissals as "these were routine resignations unrelated to politics", but the media attacked the party for nepotism. In July 2007, only 31% of voters were satisfied with the Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński and his Law and Justice party.
Reactions.
The reaction to the coalition within both parties were mixed, with the more radical members of LPR objecting to forming a coalition with a left-wing party; others admitted the idea of a temporary alliance, but feared integration. Some members within the party nevertheless praised the idea and claimed that they got along, especially stressing the "pro-social" stance of both groups, especially when referring to the shared opposition to privatization and deregulation measures.
The media greatly emphasized the seemingly absurd nature of the coalition. Gazeta Wyborcza wrote that Lepper is a "former communist, radical trade unionist, once an SLD ally, with fond memories of collective farms", while Giertych was described as "an heir to the National Democrats, a right-winger and a fan of Margaret Thatcher". The media also noted that Samoobrona promoted nostalgia towards the communist Polish People's Party, praising the communist secretary Edward Gierek while greatly opposing the Polish transition to capitalism, which Samoobrona emphasized by its famous slogan "Balcerowicz must go!". However, the media noted that despite the ideological conflicts, both parties were now united by their opposition to Law and Justice, along with their populist and Eurosceptic appeal; the 2006 formation of "National Agrarian Bloc" was also noted.
Amongst international