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Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP) was a political party in Poland. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Libertas Party Limited, the organization founded by Declan Ganley.

Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci

Before the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, three LPR then-members, Cyprian Gutkowski, Daniel Pawłowiec and Sebastian Jargut, registered a party called Lewica i Demokraci, (Left and Democrats). ^[5] The party was a party-in-name-only designed to frustrate ^[5] the party of the same name, which was forced to register itself as SLD+SdPl+PD+UP – Lewica i Demokraci (LiD) instead. ^[5]

Declan Ganley visited ^{[8] [9]} Poland on Friday 9 January 2009 ^[10] to discuss terms for the formation of the Poland branch of Libertas with representatives from Forward Poland (NP), PSL Piast and Prawica Rzeczypospolitej (PR). ^[10] Ganley insisted that the Poland Libertas party used the word "Libertas" in the title but the party politicians were concerned that the non-Polish name would deter voters. ^[10] The name "Forward Poland – Libertas" (Naprzód Polsko – Libertas) was suggested as a compromise name ^[10] should NP decide to ally with Libertas.

On 1 February 2009, ^[11] Ganley spoke to the inaugural Warsaw meeting of the Referendum Committee (Komitetu Referendalnego), an organization advocating that referendums be held prior to treaty ratifications by Poland. ^{[11] [12]} The speech was filmed and placed on YouTube ( prolog, part 1, part 2). The meeting attendance was estimated at 700 ^[12] or 500 ^[11] and attendees included ^{[11] [13]} Mirosław Orzechowski ( LPR), Zdzisław Podkański ( PSL), Krzysztof Filipek and Danuta Hojarska (once Samoobrona, now Party of Regions) and Antoni Tyszka ( UPR), Konrad Bonisławski (head of All-Polish Youth) and Krzysztof Bosak (former LPR MP).

On 2 February 2009 ^{[6] [11]} a press conference was given ^[7] in which the head of the Referendum Committee, former LPR MP Daniel Pawłowiec, was named as head ^{[1] [2] [7]} of Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP), and the Referendum Committee offices at Aleje Ujazdowskie 22/3, 00-478 Warsaw were named as the headquarters of Libertas Poland. ^[7]

Although the party had been announced, it did not exist under that name at that point: registering a political party in Poland is a lengthy process. ^[5] Instead, Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci was renamed to Libertas Polska, the new name being registered on 24 February 2009 ^[5]

Position

On 11 February 2009, Libertas Poland held a press conference concerning the emergency meeting of the European Council. ^[14] In that press conference, Libertas Poland demanded that the Polish government should reduce VAT following the UK example, ^[14] propose an EU joint energy policy, ^[14] and reopen the labor markets of Germany and Austria to Polish workers. ^[14]

Affiliates

Libertas attempted to get other parties to affiliate (run candidates under a common list) to it. Libertas's search for affiliates was assisted by Roman Giertych ^[15] and Wojciech Wierzejski, ^[16] with Wierzejski resigning from the leadership of LPR to devote his time to the unification of the Polish patriotic, nationalist, conservative and Christian right under a Libertas list. ^[17]

Parties that did affiliate to Libertas

The parties that affiliated with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu are as follows:

• Forward Poland and PSL Piast

Forward Poland (Naprzód Polsko, NP) originally rejected ^[18] cooperation with Libertas because they felt that Libertas did not reflect their desire for a more independent Poland. ^[18] PSL Piast (a.k.a. Stronnictwo "Piast") also initially rejected ^{[18] [19]} cooperation with Libertas for similar reasons to Forward Poland ^[18] and because the party did not have a Polish name. ^[19] Instead, the two parties planned to run their own combined list (Naprzód Polsko – Piast) in the 2009 elections. ^[20]

But the two parties eventually decided to affiliate to Libertas ^[21] and candidates from the two parties appeared on the Libertas lists. ^[22] The decision to affiliate was not unanimously welcomed within the two parties. ^[15]

There was a controversy involving allegations of forged signatures in constituency number 11 ^[23] and the Naprzód Polsko – Piast list did field candidates in that constituency. ^[20]

• Partia Regionów

Partia Regionów considered running under a Libertas list. ^[19] Partia Regionów's president, Bolesław Borysiuk, negotiated cooperation with Libertas Polska ^[24] and he announced in PR's inaugural Congress that PR's candidates were likely to run under a Libertas list alongside Libertas Polska, ^[25] and this did in fact occur. ^[22]

• League of Polish Families

As of 9 March 2009, League of Polish Families (LPR) were still considering whether to run under a Libertas list or form their own, either by themselves or with UPR, or Prawica Rzeczypospolitej. ^[26] But by 19 March, Ganley was distancing Libertas from LPR. ^[27] Nevertheless, Libertas and LPR were still in ongoing discussions on Friday 27 March 2009 ^[28] about running under a common list. By 21 April 2009, LPR had agreed to affiliate to Libertas ^[21] and their candidates did run under the Libertas list ^{[22] [29]} instead of their own list ^[30] in the 2009 European Parliament elections.

• Organizacja Narodu Polskiego – Liga Polska

Organizacja Narodu Polskiego – Liga Polska affiliated to Libertas. ^{[31] [32] [33]}

• Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe

Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe (ZChN) affiliated to Libertas. ^{[31] [32] [34]}

Parties that did not affiliate to Libertas

The parties that considered affiliating with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu, but did not, are as follows:

• Prawica Rzeczypospolitej

Prawica Rzeczypospolitej considered Libertas to have Eurofederalist aspects and rejected Libertas accordingly. ^[35] No Prawica Rzeczypospolitej candidates appeared on the Libertas list in the 2009 European Parliament elections. ^[22]

• Law and Justice

Law and Justice (PiS) personnel ^[3] were mentioned by Pawłowiec as possible Libertas candidates, although no names were given. ^[3] Libertas tried to get PiS to affiliate to it ^[36] but it did not do so, ^[37] and instead ran a full list of its own, ^[38] although one of its members (Slawomir Ligecki ^[39]) did defect to Libertas.

Personnel

TVP controversy

On 20 March 2009, journalist Hanna Lis refused to do a TVP interview with Declan Ganley. ^[40] Controversy promptly arose revolving around LPR's Roman Giertych ^[40] and whether LPR were encouraging coverage of Libertas on TVP ^[40] via Piotr Farfał the President of TVP ^[41] and a member of LPR. ^[40] Hanna Lis, ^[42] Piotr Kraśko, ^[42] and Jarosław Kulczycki, ^[42] the three presenters of a nightly news program, took sick leave in protest, forcing the news to be presented by Marcin Szczepański. ^[42]

European Parliament elections, 2009

Libertas Poland started work on/before 20 March 2009 on collecting sufficient signatures to field candidates, ^{[3] [4]} although the number and names of those candidates was not specified. ^{[3] [4]} By 2 May 2008, a Libertas Election Committee (Komitet Wyborczy Libertas) had been formed and its list consisted of 130 ^[31] candidates, later falling to 128. ^[22] The breakdown was as follows: ^[31]

Results

See also

• Jens-Peter Bonde
• Declan Ganley
• 2009 European Parliament election
• Treaty of Lisbon

References