League of Polish Families: Encyclopedia II - League of Polish Families - History

League of Polish Families - History

The party was created just before the elections in 2001 and gained 8% of the votes which gave it 38 out of 460 seats. 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 sought initially to ally Poles with Imperial Russia against Germany in the coming european war, and form a restored 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, Gabriel Janowski and others.

Some of the press believe 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 a new party known now as Porozumienie Polskie (Polish Circle) led by Jan Łopuszański and Ruch Katolick-Narodowy (Catholic-National Movment) led by Antoni Macierewicz.

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 conservative-liberal Platforma Obywatelska, and well ahead of the then ruling post-communist Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, the populist Samoobrona and the conservative Prawo i Sprawiedliwość. 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.

In the 2005 elections LPR gained 8% of the votes which gave it 34 seats, 4 less than before.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki