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Poland Center Alliance
An outspoken Walesa supporter determined to end the
political
dominance of the intellectual elite in the Citizens'
Parliamentary Club, Jaroslaw Kaczynski formed the Center
Alliance
in May 1990. The Center Alliance supported a strong
political
center embodying the ideals of Solidarity and Christian
ethics.
With the election of its candidate for president, Walesa,
and the
appointment of Kaczynski as the president's chief of
staff, the
Center Alliance became one of the most influential
political
organizations in the country.
The Center Alliance platform for the parliamentary
elections
of October 1991 called for accelerated economic reform,
privatization, rapid decommunization, and a strongly
pro-Western
foreign policy, including full membership in NATO.
Considering
its prominent position in the government and media and its
large
national membership, the party fared rather poorly in the
1991
elections. Its popular vote total yielded forty-four Sejm
and
nine Senate seats. The Center Alliance made its last show
of
political power in engineering the selection of its
candidate,
Jan Olszewski, to lead the coalition government in
December 1991.
By mid-1992, however, the influence of the party had waned
because of a bitter personal rift between Kaczynski and
Walesa,
the demise of the Olszewski government, and the party's
decision
not to participate in the ruling coalition of Hanna
Suchocka.
Data as of October 1992
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