Waldemar Pawlak
Who was the chair of Polish People's Party from 2005 to Nov 2012?
Polish Peoples Party The Polish Peoples Party ( ) , abbreviated to PSL ( traditionally translated as Polish Peasants Party ) , often shortened to ( the populars ) is an agrarian Christian-democratic political party in Poland . It is a member of the European Peoples Party and the European Peoples Party group in the European Parliament . The partys name traces its tradition to an agrarian party in Austro-Hungarian-controlled Galician Poland , which sent MPs to the parliament in Vienna . History . Before 1945 . The party was formed in 1895 in the Polish town of Rzeszow under the name Stronnictwo Ludowe ( Peoples Party ) . The party changed its name in 1903 to what its known as now . The party was led by Wincenty Witos and was quite successful , seating representatives in the Galician parliament before the turn of the 19th century . In the Second Polish Republic there were a few parties named PSL ( Polish Peoples Party Wyzwolenie , Polish Peoples Party Piast , Polish Peoples Party Left and others ) until they were removed by the Sanacja regime ( see also Peoples Party ) . During this time , there were two parties using the term Polish Peoples Party , namely Polish Peoples Party Piast and Polish Peoples Party Wyzwolenie ( which were merged into Peoples Party with Stronnictwo Chłopskie ) . During World War II , PSL took part in forming the Polish government in exile . Under the communist regime . After the war , Stanisław Mikołajczyk , a PSL leader who had been Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile , returned to communist-dominated Poland , where he joined the provisional government and rebuilt PSL . The party hoped to win the Yalta Conference-mandated elections and help establish a parliamentary system in Poland . The communists formed a rival peasant party allied with them . The 1947 parliamentary election was heavily rigged , with the communist-controlled bloc claiming to have won 80 percent of the vote . Many neutral observers believe the PSL would have won the election had it been conducted fairly . Mikołajczyk was soon compelled to flee Poland for his life . The communists then forced the remains of Mikołajczyks PSL to unite with the pro-communist Peoples Party to form the United Peoples Party . The ZSL was a governing partner in the ruling coalition . After the fall of the regime . Around the time of the fall of communism several PSLs were recreated , including Porozumienie Ludowe , Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe-Odrodzenie , and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe ( Wilanów faction ) . In 1989 most merged into one party and took part in forming the first postwar noncommunist government in Poland with the Solidarity grouping , and in 1990 changed its name to PSL . It remained on the left of Polish politics in the 1990s , entering into coalitions with the postcommunist Democratic Left Alliance . In the 2001 parliamentary elections , PSL received 9% of votes and formed a coalition with the Democratic Left Alliance , an alliance which later broke down . Since then , PSL has moved towards more centrist and conservative policies . After 2004 . The party ran in the 2004 European Parliament election as part of the European Peoples Party ( EPP ) and received 6% of the vote , giving it 4 of 54 Polish seats in the European Parliament . In the 2005 general election , the party received 7% of votes , giving it 25 seats in the Sejm and 2 in the Senate . In the 2007 parliamentary elections , the party placed fourth , with 8.93% of the vote and 31 out of 460 seats , and entered into a governing coalition with the victor , the centre-right conservative Civic Platform . In European parliament elections PSL received 7.01% of votes in 2009 . In the 2011 national parliamentary election , Polish Peoples Party received 8.36% votes which gave them 28 seats in the Sejm and 2 mandates in the Senate . At the 2015 parliamentary election , the PSL dropped to 5.13 percent of the vote , just barely over the 5 percent threshold . With 16 seats , it was the smallest of the five factions in the Sejm . Since then PSL has lost even more support to PiS during the 2018 Polish local elections when they lost 87 seats and dropped to 12.07% unlike the 23.9% they got at the last local elections . After this , the party became junior partner in coalitions with Civic Coalition and SLD . In 2019 European election , PSL won 3 seats as a part of the European Coalition . For parliamentary elections in the same year , PSL decided to create centrist and Christian-democratic coalition with or without Civic Platform named as Polish Coalition . However , PO recreated Civic Coalition with Modern and small left-wing parties ( although without major left-wing parties ) . Polish Coalition , apart from PSL , consists of Kukiz15 , Union of European Democrats and another liberal , catholic and regionalist organisations . This coalition resulted in election of 30 members . Majority of them ( 20 ) were members of PSL . Ideology . The partys platform is strongly based on neo-agrarianism . On social and ethical issues , PSL opposes abortion , same-sex marriage , soft drug decriminalization , euthanasia and death penalty . In 2019 , the party adopted ( as part of an agreement with Kukiz15 ) in the partys platform direct democracys postulates , including single-member districts and obligatory referendum . Election results . Support . The Partys traditional support base consisted of farmers , peasants and rural voters . Voters are generally more social conservative than voters of Civic Platform . The main concurrent in rural areas is national conservative Law and Justice ( PiS ) . In the 2010s the party started to lose support between rural voters ( especially in southeast of Poland ) . In 2019 election PSL gained surprisingly significant support in cities and won mandates ( e . g . in Warsaw and Wrocław ) . Leadership . Chairman : - Roman Bartoszcze ( 1990–1991 ) - Waldemar Pawlak ( 1991–1997 ) - Jarosław Kalinowski ( 1997–2004 ) - Janusz Wojciechowski ( 2004–2005 ) - Waldemar Pawlak ( 2005–2012 ) - Janusz Piechociński ( 2012–2015 ) - Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz ( 2015–present )