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Poland Polish Peasant Party
The rebirth of the moderate interwar Polish Peasant
Party
(PSL) began in the summer of 1989, when the United Peasant
Party
(Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe--ZSL) joined forces with
Solidarity and Democratic Party deputies in the new Sejm
to usher
in a noncommunist government. The ZSL adopted the name
Polish
Peasant Party "Renewal" to distance itself from its past
in the
communist coalition; then it united with the largest
existing
opposition peasant party and resumed its original name. In
the
May 1990 local elections, the PSL garnered 20 percent of
the
rural vote. In September 1990, the PSL withdrew support
for the
Mazowiecki government, citing its disapproval of current
agricultural policy and Mazowiecki's failure to appoint a
PSL
member as the minister of agriculture. As it continued to
seek
legislative relief for farmers, the PSL also became a
vocal
critic of the Bielecki government that followed
Mazowiecki.
As of mid-1992, the PSL was the third-largest
single-party
bloc in the Sejm. In 1992 the party's 180,000 dues-paying
members
made it the largest political party in the country. It
showed
considerable strength even in such heavily industrialized
areas
as Upper Silesia. Although not a member of the five-party
coalition that installed Olszewski as prime minister in
December
1991, the PSL provided critical support in securing Sejm
approval
for Olszewski's cabinet at a time when that coalition was
already
beginning to collapse. Despite its initial support for
Olszewski,
however, the party became disenchanted with the prime
minister's
agricultural program and voted for his removal in 1992.
Data as of October 1992
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