Democratic Left Alliance

Democratic Left Alliance Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej
220px
Leader	Leszek Miller
Founded	1991 (as coalition) 15 April 1999 (as party)
Merger of	SdRP, minor parties
Headquarters	ul. Złota 9 Warsaw
Youth wing	Social Democratic Youth Federation
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	United Left
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
International affiliation	Progressive Alliance, Socialist International
European Parliament group	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Colours	Red
Sejm	0 / 460
Senate	0 / 100
European Parliament	4 / 51
Regional assemblies	28 / 555
Website
www.sld.org.pl
Politics of Poland Political parties Elections

Democratic Left Alliance (Polish: Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD) is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as an electoral alliance of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently without any parliamentary representation.

History

Ideology and support patterns

The coalition can be classified as left-wing, however, during the 1990s, it managed to attract voters from the pro-market and even right-wing camp. The main support for SLD came from middle-rank state sector employees, retired people, former PZPR and OPZZ members and those who were unlikely to be frequent church-goers. The core of the coalition (Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland) rejected concepts such as lustration and de-communization, supported a parliamentarian regime with only the role of an arbiter for the president and criticized the right-wing camp for introduction of religious education into school. The excommunists criticized the economic reforms, pointing to the high social costs, without negating the reforms per se.

Coalition

SdRP, SDU and some other socialist and social-democratic parties had formed the original Democratic Left Alliance as a centre-left coalition just prior to the nation's first free elections in 1991. In 1999 the coalition became a party, but lost some members.

At the time, the coalition's membership drew mostly from the former PZPR. An alliance between the SLD and the Polish People's Party ruled Poland in the years 1993–1997. However the coalition lost power to the right-wing Solidarity Electoral Action in the 1997 election as the right-wing opposition was united this time and because of the decline of support for SLD's coalition partner PSL, though the SLD itself actually gained votes.

Electoral victory

SLD formed a coalition with Labour Union before the 2001 Polish election and won it overwhelmingly at last by capturing about 5.3 million votes, 42% of the whole and won 200 of 460 seats in the Sejm and 75 of 100 in the Senate. After the elections, the coalition was joined by the Polish People's Party (PSL) in forming a government and Leszek Miller became the Prime Minister. In March 2003, the PSL left the coalition.

Rywin-gate

By 2004 the support for SLD in the polls had dropped from about 30% to just below 10%, and several high-ranking party members had been accused of taking part in high profile political scandals by the mainstream press (most notably the Rywin affair: Rywin-gate).

On 6 March 2004, Leszek Miller resigned as party leader and was replaced by Krzysztof Janik. On March 26 the Sejm speaker Marek Borowski, together with other high-ranking SLD officials, announced the creation of a new centre-left party, the Social Democratic Party of Poland. On the next day, Leszek Miller announced he would step down as Prime Minister on 2 May 2004, the day after Poland joined the European Union. Miller proceeded to do so.

Decline after Rywin-gate

In the 2004 European Parliament election, it only received 9% of the votes, giving it 5 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament, as part of the Party of European Socialists. In the later 2009 European election the Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union joint ticket received 12% of the vote and 7 MEPs were elected as part of the newly retitled Socialists & Democrats group.

Wojciech Olejniczak, the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was elected the president of SLD on 29 May 2004, succeeded Józef Oleksy, who resigned from the post of Polish Prime Minister due to alleged connections to the KGB.

Opposition: 2005–present

However the SLD could not avoid suffering a huge defeat in the 2005 parliamentary election, SLD only won 11.3% of the vote. This gave the party 55 seats, barely a quarter of what it had had prior to the election. It had also lost all of its Senators. In late 2006 a centre-left political alliance called Left and Democrats was created, comprising SLD and smaller centre-left parties, the Labour Union, the Social Democratic Party of Poland, and the liberal Democratic Party – demokraci.pl. The coalition won a disappointing 13% in the 2007 parliamentary election and was dissolved soon after in April 2008. On 31 May 2008, Olejniczak was replaced by Grzegorz Napieralski as SLD leader.

In the 2011 parliamentary election, SLD received 8.24% of the vote which gave it 27 seats in the Sejm. After the elections, one of the party members, Sławomir Kopyciński, decided to leave SLD and join Palikot's Movement. On December 10, 2011, Leszek Miller was chosen to return as the party leader.

In the 2014 European elections on 25 May 2014, the SLD received 9.4% of the national vote and returned 4 MEPs.

In July 2015 the SLD along with Your Movement (TR), Labour United (UP) and The Greens (PZ) formed the United Left electoral alliance to contest the upcoming election.

In the 2015 parliamentary election held on 25 October 2015, the United Left list received 7.6% of the vote, below the 8% threshold, leaving the SLD without parliamentary representation for the first time.

Election results

Sejm

Election year	# of votes	% of vote	# of overall seats won	+/–
1991	1,344,820	12	60 / 460	113
1993	2,815,169	20.4	171 / 460	111
1997	3,551,224	27.1	164 / 460	6
2001	5,342,519	41	200 / 460	36
As part of the SLD-UP coalition, which won 216 seats in total.
2005	1,335,257	11.3	55 / 460	145
2007	2,122,981	13.2	40 / 460	15
As part of the Left and Democrats coalition, which won 53 seats in total.
2011	1,184,303	8.2	27 / 460	13
2015	1,147,102	7.6	0 / 460	27
As part of the United Left coalition, which won 0 seats in total.

Senate

Election year	# of overall seats won	+/–
1991	4 / 100	4
1993	37 / 100	33
1997	28 / 100	9
2001	75 / 100	47
2005	0 / 100	75
2007	0 / 100
2011	0 / 100
2015	0 / 100

Presidential

Election year	Candidate	1st round		2nd round
		# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall votes	% of overall vote
1990	Supported Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz	1,514,025	9.2 (#4)
1995	Aleksander Kwaśniewski	6,275,670	35.1 (#1)	9,704,439	51.7 (#1)
2000	Supported Aleksander Kwaśniewski	9,485,224	53.9 (#1)
2005	Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (candidate withdrew)
2010	Grzegorz Napieralski	2,299,870	13.7 (#3)
2015	Magdalena Ogórek	353,883	2.4 (#5)

European Parliament

Election year	# of votes	% of vote	# of overall seats won	+/–
2004	569,311	9.4	5 / 54	5
2009	908,765	12.3	7 / 50	2
2014	667,319	9.4	5 / 51	2

Regional assemblies

Election year	% of vote	# of overall seats won	+/–
1998	30.24	329 / 855
2002	24.65	189 / 561
2006	14.25	66 / 561	123
As part of the Left and Democrats coalition.
2010	15.2	85 / 561	19
2014	8.79	28 / 555	57

See also

• List of Democratic Left Alliance politicians
• coalition Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union

External links

• The Warsaw Voice Article. 24 November 2004.