From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Freedom Union (Poland)

Field	Value
native_name	Unia Wolności
logo	File:Logo_of_Unia_Wolności.svg
colorcode
chairman	Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1994–1995)
Leszek Balcerowicz (1995–2000)
Bronisław Geremek (2000–2001)
Władysław Frasyniuk (2001–2005)
foundation
merger	Democratic Union
Liberal Democratic Congress
Splitting off the Alliance of Democrats
dissolution
successor	Democratic Party
Civic Platform
ideology	Neoliberalism
position	Centre-right
european	European Democrat Union/European People's Party (1996–2002)
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (2002–2005)
europarl	European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (2002–2005)
country	Poland
footnotes

Leszek Balcerowicz (1995–2000) Bronisław Geremek (2000–2001) Władysław Frasyniuk (2001–2005) Liberal Democratic Congress Splitting off the Alliance of Democrats Civic Platform Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (2002–2005)

The Freedom Union (, UW) was a liberal democratic political party in Poland that was active from 1994 to 2005, when it rebranded and became the Democratic Party.

History

It was founded on 20 March 1994 out of the merger of the Democratic Union (Unia Demokratyczna, UD) and the Liberal Democratic Congress (Kongres Liberalno-Demokratyczny, KLD). Both of these parties had roots in the Solidarity trade union movement. It represented European democratic and liberal tradition, i.e., it advocated free market economy and individual liberty, rejected extremism and fanaticism, favoured European integration (in the form of European Union membership), rapid privatisation of the enterprises still owned by the Polish state and decentralisation of the government.

In the 1991 general elections, the KLD received 7.5% of the vote and 37 seats in the Sejm (out of 460 seats) and the UD got 12.3% of the votes and 62 seats. In 1993 the KLD got 4.0% of the votes and was left without seats; the UD got 10.6% of the votes and 74 seats. In 1997 the UW got 13.4% of the votes and 60 seats.

In January 2001 some members of the FU (mostly from centre-right and KLD factions) decided to move to join the new Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska), which got 12.7% of the votes and 65 seats in the September 2001 general elections whilst the FU failed to cross the 5% threshold required to gain entry to the lower house of Parliament, receiving only 3.1%. Surprisingly, the FU managed to cross the required 5% threshold in the 2004 European Parliament elections, receiving 7% of votes and 4 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament as part of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, of which it was a member.

The initiative by the FU leadership to found the centre/social-liberal Democratic Party (Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl) attracted a lot of attention. It was cofounded by Władysław Frasyniuk and economy minister Jerzy Hausner, joined by prime minister Marek Belka. Former FU member Tadeusz Mazowiecki also joined the initiative. Legally the centrist Democratic Party, founded 9 May 2005, is the successor of the FU.

Election results

Sejm

Election year	# of
votes	% of
vote	# of
overall seats won	+/–	Government	1997	2001
1,749,518	13.4 (#3)		14
404,074	3.1 (#9)		60

Senate

Election year	# of
overall seats won	+/–	1997	2001
	3
As part of the Senate 2001 coalition, which won 15 seats.

Presidential

Election year	Candidate	1st round	2nd round	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	1995
Jacek Kuroń	1,646,946	9.2 (#3)	Endorsed Lech Wałęsa

Regional assemblies

Election year	% of
vote	# of
overall seats won	+/–	1998	2002
10.3 (#4)
2.3 (#7)		73

European Parliament

Election year	# of
votes	% of
vote	# of
overall seats won	+/–	2004
446,549	7.3 (#6)

Former leader

Władysław Frasyniuk – Party chairman

Members of Polish Parliament (Sejm)

None since 2001

Former Members of Polish Senate

Olga Teresa Krzyżanowska – caucus vice-chairperson
Dorota Simonides
Kazimierz Kutz
Andrzej Jan Wielowieyski – caucus chairman
Grażyna Staniszewska (until 13 June 2004, elected to the European Parliament)

Members of the European Parliament of the former Freedom Union

Bronisław Geremek, historian and politician, ex-minister of foreign affairs
Jan Kułakowski, journalist, ex-Poland-EU negotiator
Janusz Onyszkiewicz, mathematician and politician, vice-president of the European Parliament
Grażyna Staniszewska, politician, senator

Other prominent members

Jan Rokita – now Civic Platform
Donald Tusk – now Civic Platform
Janusz Lewandowski – now Civic Platform
Jacek Kuroń – died 17 June 2004

References

(2016). "Political Parties and Trade Unions in the Post-Communist Poland:: Class Politics that Have Never a Chance to Happen". Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek.
Kołodko, Grzegorz. (2009). "A two-thirds of success. Poland’s post-communist transformation". TIGER – Globalization, Transformation and Integration Economic Research.
(2009). "Political Handbook of the World 2009". CQ Press.
(24 November 2014). "Policy Learning, Fast and Slow: Market-Oriented Reforms of Czech and Polish Healthcare Policy, 1989-2009". European University Institute.
Green, Peter S.. (3 October 1997). "Differences in New Coalition Appear Not to Run Deep : Poland Agrees on Free Market".
Paul G. Lewis. (2000). "Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe". Routledge.
Beylin, Marek. (1995). "Klapa '95".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1994-establishments-in-poland 2005-disestablishments-in-poland centrist-parties-in-poland christian-democratic-parties-in-europe defunct-liberal-political-parties defunct-political-parties-in-poland international-republican-institute liberal-parties-in-poland political-parties-disestablished-in-2005 political-parties-established-in-1994 social-liberal-parties

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Freedom Union (Poland) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report