# Democratic Left Association

The Democratic Left Association (Polish: Stowarzyszenie Lewicy Demokratycznej) is a Polish political association created by the former New Left members who left The Left coalition and parliamentary group after a conflict with the coalition's leadership. The association was formed with the intention to continue the legacy of the Democratic Left Alliance, while maintaining close ties with New Left's biggest ideological rivals — the Labour Union. Jerzy Teichert, a former local activist and a former member of SLD was selected as the president of the association, while Robert Kwiatkowski, a member of the Sejm elected on the list of The Left, became the vice-president.
The party first started as a parliamentary group, the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Left (Polish: Koło Parlamentarne Lewicy Demokratycznej) that was formed by Robert Kwiatkowski, Andrzej Rozenek, its chairwoman Joanna Senyszyn, and the deputy speaker of the Senate Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka, who, after leaving New Left, formed the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) parliamentary group from 14 December 2021 to 6 February 2023 (together with the party's chairman, senator Wojciech Konieczny), and in 2022 they established the Democratic Left Association, following in the tradition of the Democratic Left Alliance (which ceased to exist as a party in 2021, merging with Wiosna to form Nowa Lewica). When the PPS chapter was founded in 2021, Andrzej Rozenek and Joanna Senyszyn became members of the party. They left in August 2023.

## History

The party dates back to the conflict within the Democractic Left Alliance in 2021. The party's leader, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, was increasingly opposed by the regional branches of the party for his cooperation with Law and Justice as well as his talks with the social liberal party Wiosna for a merger. Most members of the Democratic Left Alliance opposed this decision, and when Czarzasty called for a party convention to announce the merger, the regional branches voted the convention down. Ultimately, the merger still took place despite the opposition. Democratic Left Alliance dissolved itself in 2021 to become the New Left together with Wiosna. The MPs of the Democratic Left Alliance who protested the decision entered the Polish Socialist Party and formed their own parliamentary group that came to be the Democratic Left Association. While formally representing the Polish Socialist Party, the parliamentary group was increasingly autonomous.
The Democratic Left Association was registered on 7 March 2022. Jerzy Teichert became its chairman and MP Robert Kwiatkowski its secretary general. Its activities were inaugurated on 2 June 2022. It presented itself as a "democratic association for truly leftist ideals" and denounced the leader of Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) Włodzimierz Czarzasty for his decison to dissolve the party and merge with Wiosna to form the New Left. The Democratic Left Association noted that the SLD had 24,000 members and had existed for 20 years, whereas Wiosna was a recent party that had about 500 members, and yet it nevertheless forced SLD to compromise its ideals. It accused Czarzasty of "lack of democracy, tyranny, unfair division of power" within the SLD.
After 23 days, the party signed, similarly to the PPS, a cooperation agreement ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections together with Labour Union, Social Democracy of Poland, Freedom and Equality, as well as, among others, the association Working People's Movement and the activists of the former party Feminist Initiative, advocating for a ‘broad electoral agreement of the democratic opposition’. The Democratic Left Association includes, among others, former MP Zbyszek Zaborowski. and a councillor of the Lower Silesian Regional Assembly, former senator Mirosław Lubiński. At the time, the Democratic Left Association also considered a merger with Labour Union in order to revive the historical Democratic Left Alliance – Labour Union coalition.
The party was later joined by the MEP and former Prime Minister Leszek Miller and Bogusław Wontor. The association has set itself the goal of creating an alternative to New Left. On 5 February 2023, the executive council of the Polish Socialist Party passed a resolution on the party's intention to run together in the 2023 Polish parliamentary election with New Left as well as Left Together and Labour (in August, Social Democracy of Poland also joined the agreement), and withdrew its consent for the Democratic Left Association parliamentary group to use the PPS name and symbol.
The Polish Socialist Party explained that its decision was motivated by the Democratic Left Association, formally representing the parliamentary group of the PPS, was too autonomous and already acted as a de facto separate party; it also added that this decision was taken in order to enter the electoral lists of New Left.On the same day, the MPs of the circle – with the exception of Wojciech Konieczny, who became an independent senator – therefore transformed the PPS parliamentary group into the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Left. In March 2023, the new party was banned from using the logo of the old SLD.
In mid-August 2023, Senator Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka left the club and joined the parliamentary club of the Civic Coalition. The party then abandoned its intention to create a broad left-wing coalition for the election, and instead wanted to unite left-wing parties to negotiate their way into the electoral lists of the Civic Coalition. In the parliamentary elections on 15 October 2023, only Andrzej Rozenek (from the Civic Coalition list) ran among the members of the circle, but did not win a seat in parliament. Joanna Senyszyn registered her own committee for the Senate elections, but the electoral commission refused to register her candidacy. Zbyszek Zaborowski also ran unsuccessfully for the Sejm from the KO list on behalf of the Democratic Left Alliance, as did Andrzej Rozenek, while Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka was re-elected to the Senate on behalf of the Civic Coalition.
The party stated its intention to run in the 2024 Polish local elections independently. The party fielded its own list to the voivodeship sejmiks. It won 13,169 votes (0.09% of the popular vote) and no seats. In 2025, the chairwoman of the Democratic Left Association, Joanna Senyszyn, declared her candidacy for the 2025 Polish presidential election.

## Ideology

The party is social democratic. It focuses on continuing the legacy of the Democratic Left Alliance, using its abbreviation and former party logo. It maintains SLD's policies, but it tries to get votes in areas that are considered right-leaning. It leans towards social conservatism, and argues that the Polish left must distance itself from issues like LGBT and abortion. The Democratic Left Association argues that women's rights and men's rights cannot be separated, and that while it will respect the existing LGBT rights, it will not "put such slogans on its banners", calling for prioritizing funding public services and reducing unemployment instead.
The party presents itself as a "democratic left open to dialogue with the extra-parliamentary left", and while opposing the New Left, it agrees with it in some areas like the Polish Constitution, the European Union, and the rule of law. At the same time, the Democratic Left Association attacks the New Left for anti-communism, contrasting it with its own positive assessment of the Polish People's Republic. It also accused the New Left of abandoning social democracy in the name of 'rainbow' liberalism, and of sexism. The Democratic Left Association is highly critical of promotion of sociocultural issues by other left-wing parties - it criticized the construction of Camerimage building in Toruń instead of allocation funds to reduce the costs of energy to citizens.
The association describes itself as a front for centre-left and left-wing political views, and names "democracy, pro-Europeanism, the rule of law, social justice and feminism" as its basic values. In its first convention, the SLD declared that its objectives would be "expanding educational activities, undertaking initiatives to counteract unemployment, protecting the environment and promoting European integration." It distances itself from sociocultural issues, dismissing the socially liberal views of the New Left as "culture war at its worst". The party also declares itself patriotic, stating that it fights for "democracy, freedom, self-government and patriotism.". Its proposals include expanding the welfare state to include special, additional pensions for uniformed and public workers.
The Democratic Left Association is highly critical of the New Left, describing it as a party that stands for the Western left and the 'rainbow flag', as opposed to "the red banner, the social democratic one" that the Democratic Left Association aspires to represent; it also accepts the Polish People's Republic and its legacy as an integral part of the Polish left, and criticizes the New Left for rejecting it. The party focuses on economic postulates, and believes that the reason for the decline of the Polish left is prioritizing cultural issues over socioeconomic ones. The Democratic Left Association also praises Law and Justice, describing it as "very democratic in comparison to New Left".
The party promotes left-wing patriotism, and together with the Polish Socialist Party it adopted a slogan "Poland's independence was won by the democratic left". The parties claimed that Józef Piłsudski, Ignacy Daszyński, Jędrzej Moraczewski and Gabriel Narutowicz were the "leaders of the democratic left" and named them the patrons of the political left-wing traditions. The Democratic Left Association stated that right-wing nationalist movements are wrongly trying to appropriate these figures and their tradition of Polish patriotism. While declaring pro-Europeanism, the party stated that it will pursue good relations with all of Poland's neighbours, including eastern ones such as Russia. It called the Russo-Ukrainian War "completely unnecessary", and argued that while Poland carries some responsibility for the war because it contributed to tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
However, despite initially striking a positive tone towards Law and Justice, the party later argued that "the most important thing is to remove PiS from power". The party states that it "believes in the project of social democracy in Poland", but that "it will not be created under the rule of Czarzasty and Biedroń." It stated its intention to work together with the Polish Socialist Party, Labour Union, Social Democracy of Poland, Feminist Initiative as well as trade unionists and also The Greens, arguing that The Greens are "drowned in the Civic Platform". Ultimately, the Democratic Left Association moderated itself and decided to run on the electoral lists of the neoliberal Civic Coalition, claiming that "whatever bad things we attribute to PO, it is the only party that has a chance to really fight PiS".
The party calls for a "mass uprising from the left side of the political scene to unite the forces of the democratic opposition" and a unity of "the parliamentary forces and the extra-parliamentary left". Its vice-chairman, Robert Kwiatkowski called an agreement of Christian democracy and left-wing forces his dream, arguing that "in fundamental matters there is not much that differs us... We have an equally strong attachment to matters related to the rule of law, to our place in the EU, to the defense policy that Poland should pursue, to economic policy..." Kwiatkowski also added that it is necessary to form coalitions with "liberals, conservatives, and members of the Polish People's Party. Because, figuratively speaking, you first have to beat D'Hondt in order to defeat PiS". The Democratic Left Association started as a parliamentary group of the Polish Socialist Party. However, some of the party members were criticized for lacking a strong attachment to socialism and seeking coalitions with liberal parties.