Libertas Poland

Libertas Polska
Leader Originally Daniel Pawłowiec[1][2]
later Declan Ganley[3][4]
Founded ~2006/7[5] (as Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci)
2 February 2009.[6] (announced as Libertas Polska)
24 February 2009[5] (renamed to Libertas Polska)
Headquarters Aleje Ujazdowskie 22/3, 00-478 Warsaw[7]
Ideology anti-Lisbon Treaty, Euroscepticism
European affiliation Libertas Party Limited
European Parliament group none
Colours blue, gold
Website
referendumdlapolski.pl

Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP) is 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.

Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci

Before the Polish parliamentary election, 2007, three LPR then-members, Cyprian Gutkowski, Daniel Pawłowiec and Sebastian Jargut, registered a party called Lewica i Demokraci, (Left and Democrats).[5] The party was a party-in-name-only designed to frustrate[5] the party of the same name, which was forced to register itself as SLD+SdPl+PD+UP – Lewica i Demokraci (LiD) instead.[5]

Declan Ganley visited[8][9] Poland on Friday 9 January 2009[10] to discuss terms for the formation of the Poland branch of Libertas with representatives from Forward Poland (NP), PSL Piast and Prawica Rzeczypospolitej (PR).[10] 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.[10] The name "Forward Poland - Libertas" (Naprzód Polsko – Libertas) was suggested as a compromise name[10] should NP decide to ally with Libertas.

On February 1, 2009,[11] 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.[11][12] The speech was filmed and placed on YouTube (prolog, part 1, part 2). The meeting attendance was estimated at 700[12] or 500[11] and attendees included[11][13] 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 February 2, 2009[6][11] a press conference was given[7] in which the head of the Referendum Committee, former LPR MP Daniel Pawłowiec, was named as head[1][2][7] 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.[7]

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.[5] Instead, Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci was renamed to Libertas Polska, the new name being registered on 24 February 2009[5]

Position

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]

Affiliates

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]

Parties that did affiliate to Libertas

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][19] cooperation with Libertas for similar reasons to Forward Poland[18] and because the party did not have a Polish name.[19] Instead, the two parties planned to run their own combined list (Naprzód Polsko - Piast) in the 2009 elections.[20]
But the two parties eventually decided to affiliate to Libertas[21] and candidates from the two parties appeared on the Libertas lists.[22] 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[23] and the Naprzód Polsko - Piast list did field candidates in that constituency.[20]
Partia Regionów considered running under a Libertas list.[19] 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.[22]
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[21] and their candidates did run under the Libertas list[22][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]

Parties that did not affiliate to Libertas

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.[22]
Law and Justice (PiS) personnel[3] were mentioned by Pawłowiec as possible Libertas candidates, although no names were given.[3] 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.

Personnel

Person Position
Declan Ganley President[3][4]
Daniel Pawłowiec Originally President,[14] later Vice-president.[3][4] Former LPR MP
Artur Zawisza Vice-president[14] and former PR MP

TVP controversy

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]

European Parliament elections, 2009

Libertas Poland started work on/before 20 March 2009 on collecting sufficient signatures to field candidates,[3][4] although the number and names of those candidates was not specified.[3][4] 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.[22] 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

Results

Main article: Libertas.eu

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Libertas w Warszawie". Nasz Dziennik. February 3, 2009. Archived from the original on 23 May 2009.
  2. 1 2 "Irish Eurosceptic party sets up in Poland". Polskie Radio. February 2, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ""Nowa partia nie będzie mieć polskiego prezesa" (English translation). ONET.pl. 20 March 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Partia "Libertas" została zarejestrowana w Polsce" (English translation). Polskie Radio. 20 March 2009.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Libertas powstal z... LiD-u" (English translation). newsweek.pl. 28 March 2009.
  6. 1 2 "Ganley otworzył biuro Libertas w Warszawie" (English translation). RP.pl. February 2, 2009.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Otwarcie biura Libertas w Polsce" (English translation). Referendum Committee website. 2 February 2009.
  8. ↑ "Declan Ganley Visits Poland". liberatas.eu.
  9. ↑ "Ganley to set up Libertas offshoot in Poland". RTÉ News. 10 January 2009.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Irlandzki milioner tworzy w Polsce antyeuropejski ruch" (English translation). tvp.info. 7 January 2009.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "Polska może być inspiracją dla innych – Declan Ganley w Warszawie" (English translation). Libertas. 19 February 2009.
  12. 1 2 "Ganley launches European campaign in Poland". Irish Times. February 3, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Ganley, postrach Unii" (English translation). Gazeta Wyborcza. February 2, 2009.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Konferencja Libertas na temat szczytu Unii Europejskiej" (English translation). Referendum Committee website. 11 February 2009.
  15. 1 2 Zapałowski, Andrzej. "Naszym zdaniem: NIE ZA WSZELKĄ CENĘ". rs-naprzodpolsko.pl.
  16. ↑ "Wierzejski oddaje władzę w LPR". tvn24.pl. 20 April 2009.
  17. ↑ "Liga znowu straciła swoją głowę: Wierzejski porzuca fotel szefa LPR". dziennik.pl. 19 April 2009.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "Skrajna prawica razem, ale bez Libertas" (English translation). rp.pl. 1 March 2009.
  19. 1 2 3 "Lubelszczyzna - desant o. Rydzyka" (English translation). Gazeta Wyborcza. 26 March 2009.
  20. 1 2 "Koalicyjny Komitet Wyborczy Naprzód Polsko - Piast".
  21. 1 2 "Libertas allies with fringe right wing in Poland". polskieradio.pl. Archived from the original on 1 May 2009.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 "Komitet Wyborczy Libertas". Archived from the original on 23 May 2009.
  23. ↑ "NAPRZÓD POLSKO I KPN RAZEM".
  24. ↑ "Borysiuk otworzy listę Libertas na Lubelszczyźnie?". radio.lublin.pl. 2009-03-28.
  25. ↑ "Pierwszy kongres polskiej Partii Regionów" (in Polish). wiadomosci.wp.pl. 18 April 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2009.
  26. ↑ "LPR coraz bliżej podjęcia decyzji, z kim do eurowyborów" (English translation). gazetaprawna.pl. 9 March 2009.
  27. ↑ "Libertas to cut links with controversial Polish political party". Irish Times. 19 March 2009.
  28. ↑ "Do PE startują Libertas, LPR, UPR, Prawica i PDP" (English translation). newsweek.pl. 29 March 2009.
  29. ↑ "Kandydaci Stronnictwa 'Piast' w wyborach do Parlamentu Europejskiego ogłoszonych na dzień". 7 June 2009.
  30. ↑ "Komitet Wyborczy Liga Polskich Rodzin".
  31. 1 2 3 4 "LIBERTAS - największe oszustwo wyborcze w wyborach do Parlamentu Europejskiego 2009 r.". Archived from the original on 7 May 2009.
  32. 1 2 "Wojciech Wierzejski komentuje rejestrację list: Hasłem naszym Wolność będzie i Ojczyzna nasza!".
  33. ↑ "Libertas list candidates in constituency number 4". Archived from the original on 23 May 2009.
  34. ↑ "Libertas list candidates in constituency number 8". Archived from the original on 23 May 2009.
  35. ↑ "Jurek: Nie działamy w izolacji" (English translation). dziennik.pl. 9 March 2009.
  36. ↑ "Libertas Wants PiS to Split". wprost.pl. 2009-04-22.
  37. ↑ "Z całą pewnością oba stanowiska są dla nas nie do uzyskania". pis.org.pl. 4 May 2009.
  38. ↑ "Komitet Wyborczy Prawo i Sprawiedliwość".
  39. ↑ "Libertas list candidates in constituency 13".
  40. 1 2 3 4 "Lis nie chce chodzić na pasku Giertycha" (English translation). dziennik.pl. 20 March 2009.
  41. ↑ "FARFAŁ PREZESEM TELEWIZJI PUBLICZNEJ: Będą czystki w TVP". TVN24.pl. 29 December 2008.
  42. 1 2 3 4 "On zastąpił Hannę Lis i Piotra Kraśkę" (English translation). dziennik.pl. 26 March 2009.
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