Electoral politics in Poland: The parliamentary elections of 1997

Abstract

The Polish parliamentary election of September 1997 demonstrated the further consolidation of democracy in the years since the fall of communist rule. On a fairly low poll, the governing centre‐left coalition was defeated by a new coalition of parties and groupings from the previously deeply fragmented right. The number of parties and groupings was significantly down on previous elections, with only five winning parliamentary seats. The winner was Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS), which ran a very effective campaign, providing a clear focus for opposition to the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), a communist‐successor formation. AWS won by invoking the idea of ‘completing the Solidarity revolution’ interrupted in the leftward swing of 1993 and competing against a misconceived and complacent campaign by the SLD whose coalition partner, the Polish Peasant Party (PSL), was punished for failing to ‘deliver’ to its core rural electorate. The election also halted the decline of the liberal Freedom Union (UW) following a dynamic, presidential‐style campaign focusing on its leader and author of the post‐communist reforms, Leszek Balcerowicz.