Centre Agreement

The Centre Agreement (Porozumienie Centrum, PC) was a Christian democratic political party in Poland. It was established in 1990 and had its roots in the Solidarity trade union and its political arm, the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Its main leader was Jarosław Kaczyński. The party was initially the party of choice of Polish president Lech Wałęsa and heavily cooperated with him and his environment between 1990 and 1992, leading the first post communist governments. In 1991, Jan Olszewski from Centre Agreement gained the support of Wałęsa for his candidacy for Prime Minister, forming a PC led government. However, the government was mired with internal conflicts in 1992 and fell to a vote of no confidence. Afterwards, the party was increasingly marginalized and became a part of Solidarity Electoral Action in 1997. In 2001, leadership of the party dissolved Centre Agremeent to found Law and Justice, the direct successor of the party.

In the 1991 parliamentary election the PC was part of the Centre Civic Alliance, which obtained 8.7% of the vote. Subsequently, it joined the government led by Jan Krzysztof Bielecki of the Liberal Democratic Congress and, in December 1991, PC's Jan Olszewski formed a government that lasted until 1992. In the 1993 parliamentary election the PC was reduced to 4.4% and failed to elect any MPs. The party was subsequently abandoned by many activists, who founded parties such as the Centre Agreement – Integrative Initiative, Movement for the Republic, Movement for Reconstruction of Poland and Polish Union. During the first period of its existence, the Centre Agreement was not a homogeneous formation. It comprised, among others, the free market "Gdańsk Liberals", several minor groupings with a Christian Democratic profile (the Christian Democratic Labour Party, the Young Christian Democrats), or the peasants from the Polish People's Party (Mikołajczykowskie). These ideologically diverse entities were united by their critical assessment of the policies of Tadeusz Mazowiecki's government, hence Lech Wałęsa became their natural ally, who in turn also gave his support to the newly established party on 11 June 1990. This alliance was accompanied by slogans on the dynamisation of the systemic changes, with demands for the fastest possible free elections, both parliamentary and presidential, as well as the reconstruction of the economy, by which they meant privatisation and demonopolisation. The creation of the Agreement of the Centre coincided with the beginning of the so called "war on the top" amongst Wałęsa and the rest of the post Solidarity cabinet. The day after the conference at which the establishment of the party was announced, Lech Wałęsa expressed his approval for the existence of differentiation in the milieu of the former opposition. After the parliamentary elections of 27 October 1991, party presidential disputes over the candidate for the post of Prime Minister began, which lasted for almost two months. Shortly after the parliamentary elections, Lech Wałęsa proposed four options for forming a new government. As a result of the Centee Agreement's opposition to this proposal, on 8 November 1991 Wałęsa entrusted the mission of forming a government to Bronisław Geremek. Resistance from right wing parties forced Geremek on 13 November to abandon further talks. At that time, four parties were consulting on the Prime Minister's candidacy: KLD, KPN, PC and ZChN. On 13 November 1991, they were joined by the post Solidarity People's Alliance (PL), forming the so called 'Five'. Its candidate for the office of Prime Minister was attorney Jan Olszewski of the PC. For the next two weeks, the president took steps to disempower him and keep Bielecki's government submissive. In the cultural sphere, the Centre Agreement sought to maintain a distance from both the Democratic Union, in which strong influences from the Solidarity left were perceived, and the Christian National Union, seen as anachronistic. This is evidenced by the words spoken by the leader of the PC, Jarosław Kaczyński, in an interview given in 1993 to Michał Bichniewicz and Piotr M. Rudnicki: "I am not in favour of what the conservatives from ZChN are proposing, i. e. a return to the traditional patriarchal family ( ) This is not a model possible to propose to contemporary society". Regarding ZChN and Catholic nationalism represented by this party, Kaczyński remarked: "The Catholicism proposed by ZChN manifests itself in a specific form, as a demand for a Catholic state. I do not accept this type of political Catholicism ( ) I once said of ZChN that it is the shortest road to the de Christianisation of Poland. I fully uphold this opinion ( )'." The party spoke of the economy in terms of familialism and an extensive welfare state, stating that the main objective of the economy should be "preventing the impoverishment of families in need", and proposing an agricultural reform that would promote family farming at expense of agricultural corporations and large farms. Centre Agremeent advocated for a balanced approach to reforms, speaking against the calls to make the Polish economy competetive and integrate it into Western markets. The party employed economically nationalist rhetoric, warning that unselective, hasty privatization and deregulatory reforms will threaten Polish sovereignty, "first economically, and then politically".

Election yearCandidate1st round2nd round # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall votes % of overall vote 1990 Supported Lech Wałęsa 6,569,889 40.0 (#1) 10,622,696 74.3 (#1) 1995 Supported Jan Olszewski 1,225,453 6.9 (#4) Supported Lech Wałęsa 2000 Supported Marian Krzaklewski 2,739,621 15.5 (#3)

Election year # ofvotes % ofvote # ofoverall seats won +/– 1991 977,344 8.7 44As part of the Centre Civic Alliance coalition. 1993 609,973 4.4 44As part of the Centre Agreement – Polish Union coalition, which won no seats. 1997 4,427,373 33.8 14As part of the Solidarity Electoral Action coalition, which won 201 seats.

Election year # ofoverall seats won +/– 1991 1993 8 1997 2As part of the Solidarity Electoral Action coalition, which won 51 seats.