League of Polish Families



         


League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin) is an opposition party in the Polish Parliament (the Sejm). It was created just before the elections in 2001 and gained 8% of the votes.

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History

Their leader is Roman Giertych. His father Maciej Giertych is a parliament deputy in the same party as his son. Roman Giertych's grandfather was a deputy to the parliament of the Second Polish Republic before the World War II, and a member of the National Democracy, a group that initially stayed close to Imperial Russias interests in Poland. Roman Giertych graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He studied both Law and History. Then he started cooperation with Polish National Democrats such as Jan Łopuszański, Antoni Macierewicz, Gabryjel Janowski and others. Press supposes that his party is affiliated with father Tadeusz Rydzyk, director of the catholic radio station Radio Maryja, hugely popular among older people, though sometimes criticized by top Church authorities in Poland. However it has never been proved that the party is in any way founded by him. Soon after the election in 2001 a group of deputies separated from LPR creating own party known now as Porozumienie Polskie (Polish Circle) with the leader Jan Łopuszański.

In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament LPR received 16% votes which gave it 15 out of 54 seats reserved for Poland in European Parliament. This made the LPR the second largest party in Poland in that election, second only to the liberal Platforma Obywatelska, and well ahead of the ruling left-wing Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, the populist Samoobrona and the conservative Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc. However, two notable features of that election were the low overall turnout (less than 20% of eligible voters) and the apparent very high average age of LPR voters. Thus, the long-term significance of the LPR's strong performance in that election is as yet unclear.

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Political program

The political program is Christian left, however recently the party tries to claim it's patriotic right. The party combines social conservatism with isolationism and left-wing economic policies, based upon her own interpretation of the Catholic Social Doctrine. The party is fiercely anti-EU and is the only significant political force in Poland that is unconditionally against EU membership, believing the union formed from the ground up by social-liberals can never be reformed.

The party attracts voters who feel lost in the political transformation occurring in Poland after 1989, but are unwilling to vote for the communists. Unlike other similar parties LPR isn't known to take part in any poltical scandal.

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Leaders

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Members of Polish Parliament (Sejm)

MP, constituency


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League of Polish Families - Electoral Committee

Except of LPR party members the electoral committee consisted of several political parties and groups that formed separate parliamentary cacuses in Polish parliament:

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Members of Polish Senate

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Members of European Parliament

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