166-577: Defunct The Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland ( Polish : Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej , SRP ) is a socialist , populist , agrarian , and nationalist political party and trade union in Poland . The party promotes agrarian socialist and Catholic socialist economic policies combined with a left-wing populist , anti-globalization and anti-neoliberal rhetoric. The party describes itself as left-wing, although it stresses that it belongs to
332-499: A / (spelled a ), / ɔ / (spelled o ) and / u / (spelled u and ó as separate letters). The nasal vowels are / ɛ w̃ / (spelled ę ) and / ɔ w̃ / (spelled ą ). Unlike Czech or Slovak, Polish does not retain phonemic vowel length — the letter ó , which formerly represented lengthened /ɔː/ in older forms of the language, is now vestigial and instead corresponds to /u/. The Polish consonant system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include
498-433: A Polish agrarian WW2-era resistance movement of the same name . Samoobrona's Peasant Battalions were to protect farmers against the bailiffs and evictions; after founding the group, Lepper stated: "We will strengthen physical fortitude, develop patriotism and train our military troops. We don't want war, but we have a lawless state, so we will fight the state offices - bailiffs, banks, tax offices - with weapons in hand. We are
664-518: A bill recognizing Silesian as a regional language in Poland on 26 April 2024. However, on 29 May 2024, the President Andrzej Duda vetoed the bill, claiming that Silesian is not a language and does not deserve its own status. In November 2007, the regionalist wing of the party seceded and formed Party of Regions , further weakening local structures of the party. Lepper accepted responsibility for
830-418: A billion or two or ten, they really couldn't have made it through legal work" became widely reported and known. The emergence of Self-Defence as an organised political group was somewhat clouded by the alleged active involvement of former members of the communist security services who acted as advisers or activists, especially in the early days. In this context, the involvement of Soviet and Russian intelligence
996-403: A deeply divided and polarized society. This led to the rise of populist movements that gained popularity through dissatisfaction with the reforms - this included the left-wing agrarian Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (which became known for its slogan "Balcerowicz must go!"), far-right League of Polish Families , and later Law and Justice . The plan was decried as "economic genocide" by
1162-547: A defender of farmers, but also of all those disadvantaged by the new system. Samoobrona appeared wherever there were protests or bailiffs tried to enforce court rulings. Media widely reported on Samoobrona preventing the sale of a state farm in Główczyce and the "battle of the Sejm", when more than a thousand Samoobrona members turned up with banners "Poland for Poles" and "We will not be a feeding ground for any party", sparking clashes with
1328-710: A dialect of Polish. Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating for the recognition of Silesian as a regional language in Poland . The law recognizing it as such was passed by the Sejm and Senate in April 2024, but has been vetoed by President Andrzej Duda in late May of 2024. According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, over half a million people declared Silesian as their native language. Many sociolinguists (e.g. Tomasz Kamusella , Agnieszka Pianka, Alfred F. Majewicz, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz ) assume that extralinguistic criteria decide whether
1494-596: A failure after less than a year: when Lepper was returning from a trade union congress in India, he was spectacularly arrested after crossing the border in Kudowa (4 April 2000) and then released after three hours. In February 2001, Samoobrona entered coalition negotiations with the Polish Socialist Party . The aforementioned "Workers' and Peasants' Alliance" was to be a 'radical socialist' coalition between Samoobrona, PPS and
1660-656: A few culturally and linguistically related tribes from the basins of the Vistula and Oder before eventually accepting baptism in 966. With Western Christianity , Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet , which made it possible to write down Polish, which until then had existed only as a spoken language . The closest relatives of Polish are the Elbe and Baltic Sea Lechitic dialects ( Polabian and Pomeranian varieties). All of them, except Kashubian , are extinct. The precursor to modern Polish
1826-478: A great improvement over his past performances. After the elections, Samoobrona temporarily shelved its most radical demands and along with the League of Polish Families entered into a coalition with the center-right Law and Justice party. Despite being a part of a right-wing government, the party doubled down on its left-wing rhetoric. Jarosław Tomasiewicz wrote: "This joint front with the right, however, did not mean
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#17330850693641992-511: A large number of branches in all of these areas) offers services available in Polish at all of their cash machines in addition to English and Spanish . According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England and Wales who consider Polish to be their "main" language. In Canada , there is a significant Polish Canadian population : There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to
2158-484: A leading role for a long time. Samoobrona as a movement had communist origins, and it originally was a peasant movement associated with the Polish People's Party , which back then was an agrarian socialist party associated with the fallen communist regime, and was considered one of the post-communist successor parties based on the nostalgia for the previous, socialist regime. As Lepper reported many years later. Lepper,
2324-533: A lect is an independent language or a dialect: speakers of the speech variety or/and political decisions, and this is dynamic (i.e. it changes over time). Also, research organizations such as SIL International and resources for the academic field of linguistics such as Ethnologue , Linguist List and others, for example the Ministry of Administration and Digitization recognized the Silesian language. In July 2007,
2490-678: A major outcry after Gazeta Wyborcza published the claims. Krawczyk also claimed her then 3-year-old daughter was Stanisław Łyżwiński 's child, which proved to be incorrect following DNA testing. The criminal trial in this case began in 2008 before the District Court of District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski, which in February 2010 sentenced Lepper to two years and three months' imprisonment and Łyżwiński to five years of imprisonment. Both have maintained that they were innocent. In March 2011,
2656-597: A mission of "increasing active support of the society for a wide range of individual freedoms (especially economic freedom), and – what goes with it – for strengthening the rule of law in the country". In 2016, he was appointed as representative of the Ukrainian President in the Cabinet of ministers . He is a recipient of the Chilean Order of Merit . The Balcerowicz Plan was a series of reforms, which brought
2822-421: A more attractive appearance for Andrzej Lepper (a solarium tan to mask blushing in moments of nervousness, well-tailored suits). He was also given lessons in rhetoric, eristic and retorting, and his tone of voice was lowered. The Self-Defence candidates appeared in the media wearing distinctive white and red ties, which not only made political identification easier for the voters, but also encouraged them to perceive
2988-454: A nasal consonant, rather than a nasal vowel. For example, ą in dąb ("oak") is pronounced [ɔm] , and ę in tęcza ("rainbow") is pronounced [ɛn] (the nasal assimilates to the following consonant). When followed by l or ł (for example przyjęli , przyjęły ), ę is pronounced as just e . When ę is at the end of the word it is often pronounced as just [ɛ] . Depending on
3154-420: A part of its electorate. Lepper almost disappeared from the media. Rarely invited to interviews, he generally focused on criticising the right-wing Law and Justice party. At the beginning of July 2007, then Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński named Lepper as a person in the circle of suspicion in connection with the so-called "land affair" . This concerned a CBA (Central Anti-Corruption Bureau) operation concerning
3320-562: A party responsible for breaking up farmers' protests. The SLD-PSL government fell shortly after, as the PSL left the coalition after the minister of economy, Jacek Piechota from SLD, abolished custom duties on some food products; PSL and Samoobrona decried this decision as "the nail in the coffin for farmers". SLD then entered a new coalition with the pro-European Labour Union that lasted until 2004. The involvement of Piotr Tymochowicz's professional image creation company resulted, among other things, in
3486-413: A political task for the party. The party also reestablished its reputation as an unequivocally left-wing party. Talks were initiated with the Polish Socialist Party led by Piotr Ikonowicz and the democratic-socialist National Party of Retirees and Pensioners , proposing to establish "a worker–peasant alliance". There was also an attempt to establish a new party that would represent socialist left, with
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#17330850693643652-489: A populist-agrarian face. Political scientists also described it as socialist, allowing it to form alliances with the Democratic Left Alliance. On the other hand, its anti-neoliberal and nationalist narrative also allowed it to briefly cooperate with PiS and LPR in 2005. Founded by Andrzej Lepper in 1992, the party initially fared poorly, failing to enter the Sejm . However, it was catapulted to prominence in
3818-449: A problem for some two decades after the implementation of the reforms, leaving certain poverty-stricken regions with structural unemployment. Reducing unprofitability of the state-owned companies required significant layoffs. Even though over 2 million Poles emigrated from Poland since its entry into the EU, until 2010s, the unemployment level remained at 13%. Populist politician Andrzej Lepper ,
3984-516: A radical party, open to all disadvantaged people who are starving at home." The "Peasant Battalions" successfully harassed bailiffs, even reportedly shaving their heads and battering them. The party was accused by media of planning a revolution against the government, to which Lepper provocatively responded by stating his plans to expand the Samoobrona coalition with pensioners and unemployed. Incendiary comments of Samoobrona members such as "If someone has
4150-441: A radical populist party. However, scandals that rocked the party made its popularity collapse. In December 2006, a scandal broke out when Aneta Krawczyk, a local party ex-leader accused Samoobrona leaders, notably Andrzej Lepper and Stanisław Łyżwiński of sexual harassment. Subsequently, the accusation was supported by other females from within the party ranks and the issue of gaining governmental posts in exchange for sex produced
4316-516: A result of the neoliberal Balcerowicz Plan , which dismantled the socialist economy in Poland in favor of a capitalist free-market one. As the state sector of agricultures was dismantled and privatized, rural areas experienced an extreme spike of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. Unfavourable prices of agricultural products on the market further aggravated the situation - between 1990 and 1991, agricultural prices increased threefold while industrial prices increased tenfold, drastically diminishing
4482-402: A reversed diacritic hook called an ogonek . Polish is a synthetic and fusional language which has seven grammatical cases . It has fixed penultimate stress and an abundance of palatal consonants . Contemporary Polish developed in the 1700s as the successor to the medieval Old Polish (10th–16th centuries) and Middle Polish (16th–18th centuries). Among the major languages, it
4648-439: A significant role as party structures were not yet ready for an electoral campaign and were often in the preliminary state of organisation. The party won over 1.3% of the popular vote. The 1994 local elections are largely undocumented and were greatly affected by the lack of interest in Polish society, which translated into a very low turnout (33%). Samoobrona along with the Polish Socialist Party avoided forming local coalitions in
4814-491: A single word. This applies in particular to many combinations of preposition plus a personal pronoun, such as do niej ('to her'), na nas ('on us'), prze ze mnie ('because of me'), all stressed on the bolded syllable. The Polish alphabet derives from the Latin script but includes certain additional letters formed using diacritics . The Polish alphabet was one of three major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Western and some South Slavic languages,
4980-458: A spiral of debt due to the introduction of variable interest rates as part of the implementation of Balcerowicz's reform plan. Striking farmers announced the formation of the Farmers' Self-Defence Committee ( Polish : Komitet Samoobrony Rolników ). The blockade of Darłowo with agricultural machinery attracted press attention, and over a period of two months, the communal protest committee evolved into
5146-472: A turn of the SRP to the right. On the contrary, Lepper's plan was for Samoobrona to take over the hegemony on the left". On the next party convention, Lepper stated: "I set myself the aim to convince the electorate of the left in such a way that they understand that the only left-wing, pro-social and patriotic party is currently Samoobrona". To this end, the party started cooperating with minor left-wing parties such as
Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland - Misplaced Pages Continue
5312-767: A two-year shock to the Polish economy. Among other actions included in the plan was the negotiation of a significant reduction (approximately 50%) of the debts inherited from the Polish People's Republic . In 1998, Balcerowicz was awarded the Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year Award for his accomplishments as a finance minister. The severity of the reforms was controversial and made Balcerowicz an object of criticism by some politicians in Poland. The reforms impoverished and vanished economic opportunities of already struggling social groups such as low-educated, rural and low-income workers. This resulted in Poland becoming
5478-405: A verse by Jan Brzechwa ) is W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ ˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂ ˈbʐmi fˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ] ('In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed'). Unlike languages such as Czech, Polish does not have syllabic consonants – the nucleus of a syllable is always a vowel. The consonant /j/ is restricted to positions adjacent to a vowel. It also cannot precede
5644-515: A view to prepare for the 2009 European Parliament election in Poland . However, the party went bankrupt by the end of 2007 as it was unable to pay for its 2007 electoral campaign. The party was also unable to cover its bills, and electricity and the alarm system were disconnected from the party headquarters. Lepper founded a new party known as "Self-Defence" (as opposed to "Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland") in 2010, which sustained itself solely on membership fees and had no commitments. In 2009, as
5810-478: A vowel when it precedes another vowel (it represents /j/ , palatalization of the preceding consonant, or both depending on analysis). Also the letters u and i sometimes represent only semivowels when they follow another vowel, as in autor /ˈawtɔr/ ('author'), mostly in loanwords (so not in native nauka /naˈu.ka/ 'science, the act of learning', for example, nor in nativized Mateusz /maˈte.uʂ/ 'Matthew'). Some loanwords , particularly from
5976-399: A wheelbarrow (which became Samoobrona's speciality in the fight against officials) after refusing to sign the resignation submitted to him. The leaders of the party frequently got into legal clashes and confrontations with the police and the judiciary because of their unruly protests. A joke became popular among Polish youth: "I wish you as much luck as the number of convictions of Lepper". At
6142-456: A work permit at all for temporary and seasonal jobs. Both parties also worked with each other on local levels, and formed coalitions in voivodeship sejmiks . Local leaders emphasized the left-wing outlook of both parties. Samoobrona also hoped to persuade the SLD to soften its pro-European stance, especially on the issue of European integration. In 2003, SLD also supported Andrzej Lepper's candidacy for
6308-636: Is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group within the Indo-European language family written in the Latin script . It is primarily spoken in Poland and serves as the official language of the country, as well as the language of the Polish diaspora around the world. In 2024, there were over 39.7 million Polish native speakers. It ranks as the sixth most-spoken among languages of the European Union . Polish
6474-419: Is also spoken as a second language in eastern Germany , northern Czech Republic and Slovakia , western parts of Belarus and Ukraine as well as in southeast Lithuania and Latvia . Because of the emigration from Poland during different time periods, most notably after World War II , millions of Polish speakers can also be found in countries such as Canada , Argentina , Brazil , Israel , Australia ,
6640-427: Is most closely related to Slovak and Czech but differs in terms of pronunciation and general grammar. Additionally, Polish was profoundly influenced by Latin and other Romance languages like Italian and French as well as Germanic languages (most notably German ), which contributed to a large number of loanwords and similar grammatical structures. Extensive usage of nonstandard dialects has also shaped
6806-447: Is possible to say ko goście zoba czy li? – here kogo retains its usual stress (first syllable) in spite of the attachment of the clitic. Reanalysis of the endings as inflections when attached to verbs causes the different colloquial stress patterns. These stress patterns are considered part of a "usable" norm of standard Polish - in contrast to the "model" ("high") norm. Some common word combinations are stressed as if they were
Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland - Misplaced Pages Continue
6972-444: Is praised only by people from the same camp as him - representatives of Polish neoliberalism". Kołodko notes the excessive scale of reductions in household incomes (including real wages), as after two months of the reforms, real wages in Poland fell by over 40%. He also adds that since the reforms resulted in the industrial production falling by over 30%, that cost alone makes the reform impossible to be regarded as successful, regardless
7138-595: Is subdivided into regional dialects and maintains strict T–V distinction pronouns, honorifics , and various forms of formalities when addressing individuals. The traditional 32-letter Polish alphabet has nine additions ( ą , ć , ę , ł , ń , ó , ś , ź , ż ) to the letters of the basic 26-letter Latin alphabet , while removing three (x, q, v). Those three letters are at times included in an extended 35-letter alphabet. The traditional set comprises 23 consonants and 9 written vowels , including two nasal vowels ( ę , ą ) defined by
7304-512: Is the Old Polish language . Ultimately, Polish descends from the unattested Proto-Slavic language. The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska , Latin : Liber fundationis claustri Sanctae Mariae Virginis in Heinrichau ), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (in modern orthography: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj ;
7470-518: Is the most widely-used minority language in Lithuania's Vilnius County , by 26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results, as Vilnius was part of Poland from 1922 until 1939. Polish is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. In Ukraine, it is most common in the western parts of Lviv and Volyn Oblasts , while in West Belarus it is used by the significant Polish minority, especially in
7636-627: Is under threat; in the absence of adequate funding, it has no chance of survival." Samoobrona also had a notably high support amongst the Ukrainian minority in Poland , consistently winning the municipalities in West Pomeranian Voivodeship and Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship where Ukrainians constituted a significant minority or plurality. Samoobrona also spoke for regulation that would allow for easy legal employment of Ukrainian workers in Poland, as well as allow Ukrainian citizens to not require
7802-430: The kropka (superior dot) over the letter ż , and the ogonek ("little tail") under the letters ą, ę . The letters q, v, x are used only in foreign words and names. Polish orthography is largely phonemic —there is a consistent correspondence between letters (or digraphs and trigraphs ) and phonemes (for exceptions see below). The letters of the alphabet and their normal phonemic values are listed in
7968-401: The ś in święty ("holy") all represent the sound / ɕ / . The exceptions to the above rule are certain loanwords from Latin, Italian, French, Russian or English—where s before i is pronounced as s , e.g. sinus , sinologia , do re mi fa sol la si do , Saint-Simon i saint-simoniści , Sierioża , Siergiej , Singapur , singiel . In other loanwords
8134-631: The 2001 parliamentary election , winning 53 seats, after which it gave confidence and supply to the Democratic Left Alliance government. It elected six MEPs at the 2004 European election , with five joining the Union for Europe of the Nations and one joining the PES Group . It switched its support to Law and Justice (PiS) after the 2005 election , in which it won 56 seats in the Sejm and three in
8300-579: The Brest and Grodno regions and in areas along the Lithuanian border. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries. In the United States , Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. According to the 2000 United States Census , 667,414 Americans of age five years and over reported Polish as
8466-618: The Catholic socialist wing of the party known as Social Movement seceded to form a new party called Self-Defence Social Movement ( Polish : Samoobrona Ruch Społeczny ), which then became Self-Defence Rebirth . The idea of the LiS party was then soon abandoned, and the party doubled down on its left-wing rhetoric, inviting Leszek Miller and the leader of the New Left, Piotr Ikonowicz , to its electoral lists. Despite this, numerous scandals heavily damaged
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#17330850693648632-634: The Democratic Left Party , the Working People's Movement and the National Party of Retirees and Pensioners . The ranks of Self-Defence included activists from the Democratic Left Alliance (e.g. Grzegorz Tuderek , Bolesław Borysiuk ) and the Labour Union ( Andrzej Aumiller ). To a large extent, Lepper's plan succeeded - while right-leaning voters defected to the League of Polish Families , this
8798-629: The Group of Thirty , and is a board member of renowned Washington, D.C. think-tank the Peterson Institute . Fellow of Collegium Invisibile . Since 11 June 2008 Balcerowicz has been a member of the board of Bruegel , the Brussels-based think tank on international economics . Since 2007, he has led the Civil Development Forum (Polish: Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju ), a think-tank with
8964-418: The National Party of Retirees and Pensioners . PPS's leader Piotr Ikonowicz announced that cooperation with Samoobrona would extend beyond the election campaign, and that all three parties would closely work together to fight capitalist economic reforms. The main concept behind the socialist coalition was almost identical to Samoobrona's goal as a political party - to represent social groups that had been hurt by
9130-647: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 's influence gave Polish the status of lingua franca in Central and Eastern Europe . The process of standardization began in the 14th century and solidified in the 16th century during the Middle Polish era. Standard Polish was based on various dialectal features, with the Greater Poland dialect group serving as the base. After World War II , Standard Polish became
9296-596: The Senate . Lepper was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government with PiS and the League of Polish Families . In 2007, he was dismissed from his position and the party withdrew from the coalition. This precipitated a new election , at which the party collapsed to just 1.5% of the vote: losing all its seats. On August 5, 2011, the Party's leader, Andrzej Lepper , was found dead in his party's office in Warsaw . His death
9462-515: The Stronnictwo Narodowe „Ojczyzna” . Their joint demonstration in Warsaw on 2 April 1993, for example, turned violent and led to clashes with the police. Agrarian protests of Samoobrona were attracting widespread media attention as well as popularity, and in April 1992 Lepper founded special paramilitary group of farmers called "Peasant Battalions" ( Polish : Bataliony Chłopskie ), referring to
9628-498: The Taliban in Klewki (a village near Olsztyn ) to sell them anthrax . Several Samoobrona members of parliament were subject to criminal investigations on charges ranging from forgery to banditry. In the 2005 elections , Samoobrona received a total of 56 seats with 11.4% support. Andrzej Lepper ran for president of Poland in the 2005 election . He received third place and 15% of the vote,
9794-511: The United Kingdom and the United States . Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. At the time, it was a collection of dialect groups with some mutual features, but much regional variation was present. Mieszko I , ruler of the Polans tribe from the Greater Poland region, united
9960-474: The classical languages , have the stress on the antepenultimate (third-from-last) syllable. For example, fizyka ( /ˈfizɨka/ ) ('physics') is stressed on the first syllable. This may lead to a rare phenomenon of minimal pairs differing only in stress placement, for example muzyka /ˈmuzɨka/ 'music' vs. muzyka /muˈzɨka/ – genitive singular of muzyk 'musician'. When additional syllables are added to such words through inflection or suffixation ,
10126-569: The flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) , as well as the expulsion of Ukrainians and Operation Vistula , the 1947 migration of Ukrainian minorities in the Recovered Territories in the west of the country, contributed to the country's linguistic homogeneity. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak Polish somewhat differently, although the differences between modern-day vernacular varieties and standard Polish ( język ogólnopolski ) appear relatively slight. Most of
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#173308506936410292-474: The free-market economic reforms , proponents of which say they have transformed Poland into one of Europe's fastest growing economies, but which critics say were followed by a large increase in unemployment. In 2007, he founded the Civil Development Forum (Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju) think-tank and became the chairman of its council. In 1970 he graduated with distinction from the Foreign Trade faculty of
10458-404: The standard language ; considerable colloquialisms and expressions were directly borrowed from German or Yiddish and subsequently adopted into the vernacular of Polish which is in everyday use. Historically, Polish was a lingua franca , important both diplomatically and academically in Central and part of Eastern Europe . In addition to being the official language of Poland, Polish
10624-611: The "Provincial Self-Defence Committee" ( Polish : Wojewódzki Komitet Samoobrony ) of farmers in Koszalin with its headquarters in Darłowo. The farmers' protests were then supported by the Polish People's Party and the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" of Individual Farmers ( Polish : Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy „Solidarność” Rolników Indywidualnych) . On 18 October 1991, A. Lepper headed
10790-421: The "patriotic left" and follows Catholic social teaching . The party is sympathetic to Communist Poland , which led political scientists to label the party as neocommunist, post-communist, and far-left. Though considered a "political chameleon", Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland is generally regarded as a left-wing party by historians and political scientists. According to Andrzej Antoszewski , Self-Defence
10956-416: The 16th century, which is also regarded as the " Golden Age of Polish literature". The orthography was modified in the 19th century and in 1936. Tomasz Kamusella notes that "Polish is the oldest, non-ecclesiastical, written Slavic language with a continuous tradition of literacy and official use, which has lasted unbroken from the 16th century to this day." Polish evolved into the main sociolect of
11122-481: The 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto (91,810 speakers) and Montreal . The geographical distribution of the Polish language was greatly affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II and Polish population transfers (1944–46) . Poles settled in the " Recovered Territories " in the west and north, which had previously been mostly German -speaking. Some Poles remained in
11288-574: The 2007 election was a proposal from 7 September 2007 to recognize the Silesian language as a regional language of Poland. Along with the MPs of Samoobrona, the bill was also supported by the members of LPR, People's National Movement and the Polish People's Party. However, the Sejm was dissolved on the same day, prompting a snap election. The bill was therefore rejected. After 17 years, the Sejm voted in favor of
11454-445: The 3,247 votes won by the committee amounted to 0.03% of the nationwide popular vote. With Lepper being on top of the electoral list, other two candidates of the committee were Leszek Siudek and Józef Kołodziej. Lepper presented his committee as "farmers' social movement emerged on the basis of farmers' disconent". Already in the program of the committee, Lepper appealed to populist policies and ideologies that would then shape Samoobrona -
11620-525: The Central School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw (currently: SGH Warsaw School of Economics ). Balcerowicz received his MBA from St. John's University in New York, in 1974 and doctorate from the Central School of Planning and Statistics in 1975. He was a member of the Polish communist party ( Polish United Workers' Party ) from 1969 until the declaration of martial law in Poland , in 1981. In
11786-522: The Court of Appeal in Łódź overturned the verdict against Lepper in the sex affair and referred the case for retrial by the Regional Court. Afterwards, Aneta Krawczyk filed a court accusation that Lepper was the father of her youngest child. However, an examination of his DNA ruled out this allegation. These events caused not only politicians, but also the public public condemned the Samoobrona activists. It lost
11952-456: The Farmers' Defence Committee established in Warsaw, which coordinated the protest of trade unionists in front of the Sejm building. The subsequent speeches were increasingly radical in nature; they were supported by a militant organisation created by the farmers called the Peasant Guard and groups of radical subcultural youth. On 14 November, an agreement was concluded between the protesters and
12118-578: The Henryków monastery, noted that "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish"). The earliest treatise on Polish orthography was written by Jakub Parkosz [ pl ] around 1470. The first printed book in Polish appeared in either 1508 or 1513, while the oldest Polish newspaper was established in 1661. Starting in the 1520s, large numbers of books in the Polish language were published, contributing to increased homogeneity of grammar and orthography. The writing system achieved its overall form in
12284-401: The Lithuanian sociologist Zenonas Norkus , assert that the operation was a political move by Jarosław Kaczyński, who already planned to end the coalition and needed a reason that implicating Lepper in bribery activities would give him. The operation also compromised the entire cabinet of Kaczyński, as his Minister of Interior, Janusz Kaczmarek , was arrested and accused of leaking information on
12450-467: The National Party of Retirees and Pensioners (KPEiR). The coalition was mostly focused on protesting austerity and neoliberalism, which aligned perfectly with the main focus of Samoobrona. The coalition aimed to challenge the political dichotomy between post-communist SLD and anti-communist AWS, and was polling well. The coalition had internal conflicts however, as some wings of the PSL were concerned with
12616-507: The Polish Socialist Party of Piotr Ikonowicz . More significantly, Samoobrona then gained informal support from the SLD, keen to weaken the PSL, which allowed Samoobrona to play the role of an informal SLD coalition partner in the Sejm and, after the 2002 local elections, also in the provincial assemblies. Although Lepper continued to lavish criticism on SLD politicians, he distinguished the liberal wing associated with Kwasniewski from
12782-525: The SLD-PSL government and entered a confidence and supply agreement with it. The SLD also nominated Genowefa Wiśniowska , a member of Samoobrona, as the chair of the Parliamentary Committee on National and Ethnic Minorities. This nomination initially faced backlash because of the radical image of Samoobrona, but after a few weeks Polish media acknowledged that Polish minority groups reported no bias in
12948-491: The SRP tried to be active in the social sphere. The party started to cooperate with organisations of disabled people (even appointing a special plenipotentiary for contacts with them) and the circles of single mothers. Commenting on the developments in Poland, Bulgarian political scientist Maria Spirova argued that Samoobrona is a serious contender for becoming the "successor party" of the Polish United Workers' Party and
13114-681: The Self-Defence of the Unemployed Homeless Association of the Pomeranian Region Darłowo ( Polish : Stowarzyszenie Samoobrona Bezrobotnych Bezdomnych Regionu Pomorskiego Darłowo ). Samoobrona itself was then founded on 27 July 1991 as a trade union Protest Committee of Self-Defence of Farmers ( Polish : Komitet Protestacyjny Samoobrony Rolników ), with Lepper being elected as its leader. First protest initiated by Lepper then took place on 5 August 1991, which demanded that
13280-671: The Silesian language was recognized by ISO , and was attributed an ISO code of szl. Some additional characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include: Polish linguistics has been characterized by a strong strive towards promoting prescriptive ideas of language intervention and usage uniformity, along with normatively-oriented notions of language "correctness" (unusual by Western standards). Polish has six oral vowels (seven oral vowels in written form), which are all monophthongs , and two nasal vowels . The oral vowels are / i / (spelled i ), / ɨ / (spelled y and also transcribed as /ɘ/ or /ɪ/), / ɛ / (spelled e ), /
13446-496: The Soviets ordered us Poles what to do, and now this dictatorship position has been taken over by international capitalism." Samoobrona extended its debt clearance demands to non-agricultural parts of the economy, and on 10 July, the protests reached its climax when farmers organizing a march in Warsaw, where the protesters clashed with anti-riot police deployed by the government. Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defence Party (Samoobrona) emerged in
13612-563: The anti-Bernanke for his scorn of distortionary fiscal stimulus. In various articles he has developed a comparison between the fiscally-profligate PIGS ( Portugal , Italy , Greece and Spain ) and the fiscally-disciplined BELLs ( Bulgaria , Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania ). Responsible fiscal policy brings about better growth outcomes, claims Leszek Balcerowicz. He has many followers among East European economists, most prominently Simeon Djankov , Deputy prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Bulgaria between 2009 and 2013. Balcerowicz
13778-448: The capitalist transformation in Poland, which Ikonowicz listed as farmers, workers, pensioners, and students. Samoobrona was very supportive of a joint run with the PPS, and the party already cooperated with the socialist party in the 2000 Polish presidential election , when Samoobrona activists helped collect signatures for the PPS candidate, Piotr Ikonowicz. Lepper proposed PPS first 30 seats on
13944-485: The cases mentioned above, the letter i if followed by another vowel in the same word usually represents / j / , yet a palatalization of the previous consonant is always assumed. The reverse case, where the consonant remains unpalatalized but is followed by a palatalized consonant, is written by using j instead of i : for example, zjeść , "to eat up". The letters ą and ę , when followed by plosives and affricates, represent an oral vowel followed by
14110-565: The collapse of the ruling coalition, a proposal of a joint front between Samoobrona and right-wing League of Polish Families was born, known as League and Self-Defence ( Polish : Liga i Samoobrona ). The Polish abbreviation for this party was LiS ("fox" in Polish), and leaders of both parties brought a plush fox to the press conference, which was shown as the mascot of the new party. However, despite their populist character, LPR and Samoobrona were fundamentally different from each other, as Samoobrona
14276-589: The committee's work. This improved the image of Samoobrona and downplayed its nationalist reputation. Lepper continued to soften the image of his party in regards to national minorities, and visited the Belarusian Socio-Cultural Association in Białystok where he pledged to allocate additional funds to the Belarusian minority in Poland . He argued that "the development of Belarusian culture in Poland
14442-496: The confidence and supply agreement in the Sejm. Lepper stated that the "SLD presented a different program before the elections, after the elections it started to implement a different program, and today practically nothing remains of both the first one and the other one." Samoobrona accused SLD of betraying its social-democratic principles and did not turn the tide after the previous neoliberal government, continuing austerity and privatization reforms instead. The party also pointed out to
14608-559: The controlled payment of bribes to two people accused of citing influence in the Ministry of Agriculture. They offered a substituted CBA agent, for a bribe, the de-agglomeration of land in Muntów in the municipality of Mrągowo. The operation ended inconsistently with the CBA's plan, because - as the prosecution initially assumed - Lepper had been warned about the action and cancelled the meetings. However, at
14774-687: The corresponding sentence in modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij ; and in English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest ), written around 1280. The book is exhibited in the Archdiocesal Museum in Wrocław, and as of 2015 has been added to UNESCO 's " Memory of the World " list. The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of
14940-450: The democratic socialist group headed by Miller and Oleksy. This allowed Samoobrona to attract a sizable group of left-wing activists, both at the central and local level. After 2001, Lepper went as far as announcing that Samoobrona would become the only party of the socialist left in Poland. At the end of January/beginning of February 1999, the whole of Poland was paralysed by road blockades and border crossings organised by farmers supporting
15106-479: The disappearance of yers . Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants. Examples of such clusters can be found in words such as bezwzględny [bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ] ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'), źdźbło [ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ] ('blade of grass'), wstrząs [ˈfstʂɔw̃s] ('shock'), and krnąbrność [ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ] ('disobedience'). A popular Polish tongue-twister (from
15272-430: The distinction between regular penultimate and exceptional antepenultimate stress. Another class of exceptions is verbs with the conditional endings -by, -bym, -byśmy , etc. These endings are not counted in determining the position of the stress; for example, zro biłbym ('I would do') is stressed on the first syllable, and zro bi libyśmy ('we would do') on the second. According to prescriptive authorities ,
15438-524: The early 1990s as a local protest movement of farmers caught in a debt trap with rapidly rising interest rates. As the movement expanded beyond its original local base in the north-western region of Poland as a result of high-profile violent protests in Warsaw, it became an actor beyond regional politics. While new regional offshoots emerged, Self-Defence was also involved in attempts to build a viable national protest movement. Its main allies in these ultimately futile efforts were extreme nationalist groups such as
15604-520: The eastern parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth wrote Polish in the Arabic alphabet. The Cyrillic script is used to a certain extent today by Polish speakers in Western Belarus , especially for religious texts. The diacritics used in the Polish alphabet are the kreska (graphically similar to the acute accent ) over the letters ć, ń, ó, ś, ź and through the letter in ł ;
15770-558: The election. In the 1995 elections Andrzej Lepper ran for president and gained 1.32% of the votes; in parliamentary elections in 1997 , the party took 0.08%. In 2000 Samoobrona organized a campaign of blocking major roads in order to get media attention. Lepper gained 3.05% votes in the presidential elections . For the 1998 Polish local elections , Samoobrona founded the Social Alliance ( Polish : Przymierze Społeczne ) together with Labour Union (UP), Polish People's Party (PSL) and
15936-501: The electoral lists and a possibility to form two separate parliamentary clubs in the Sejm. However, ultimately the Samoobrona-PPS-KPEiR coaliiton did not materialize because of the opposition of the PPS leadership, which considered Samoobrona an inappropriate political partner. After Samoobrona's spectacular performance in the 2001 election, numerous prominent PPS activists defected to it. The parliamentary elections in 2001 gave
16102-420: The end of words (where devoicing occurs) and in certain consonant clusters (where assimilation occurs). For details, see Voicing and devoicing in the article on Polish phonology. Most Polish words are paroxytones (that is, the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable of a polysyllabic word), although there are exceptions. Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from
16268-459: The end to hyperinflation , dismantled inefficient economic structures, and balanced the national budget. The prices of most consumer goods were freed and caps for annual increases established in state-sector employees' wages. Poland's currency, the zloty , was made convertible within the country's borders. This resulted in a substantial increase in prices and had forced state-owned companies while making them economically competitive. This amounted to
16434-469: The entire country. Polish has traditionally been described as consisting of three to five main regional dialects: Silesian and Kashubian , spoken in Upper Silesia and Pomerania respectively, are thought of as either Polish dialects or distinct languages , depending on the criteria used. Kashubian contains a number of features not found elsewhere in Poland, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs.
16600-476: The fact that the SLD responded to farmer protests with police forces and suppression, instead of trying to improve the agrarian situation in Poland; Lepper listed "the arrogance of the SLD, the disregard of Samoobrona's program objectives and the brutality of the government towards the protesters" as the main reasons for his hostility towards SLD. In its declaration of terminating the agreement with SLD, Samoobrona leadership in Łódź wrote that it could never work with
16766-462: The following table. The following digraphs and trigraphs are used: Voiced consonant letters frequently come to represent voiceless sounds (as shown in the tables); this occurs at the end of words and in certain clusters, due to the neutralization mentioned in the Phonology section above. Occasionally also voiceless consonant letters can represent voiced sounds in clusters. The spelling rule for
16932-496: The future stabilization. Lastly, Kołodko believes that Balcerowicz acted irrationally, as the plan did not manage to eliminate inefficient companies, but instead blindly discriminated against state-owned companies, denying them investment loans and granting them to private companies instead, regardless of their economic performance. Kołodko concludes that the Balcerowicz Plan was "creative destruction". High unemployment remained
17098-539: The government, which provided for the suspension of bailiffs' executions threatening farmers and the establishment of a special Fund and the Restructuring and Debt Relief of Agriculture. During the intense protests, Lepper made the first attempt in his political activity to participate in electoral competition. The electoral law for the Sejm and Senate, in force in 1991, allowed committees to register in only one electoral district, thus leading to an extreme fragmentation of
17264-494: The idea to create a trade union, and then a political movement, was born after a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Leszek Balcerowicz in the autumn of 1991: "Everything that happened afterwards - with me and Samoobrona - I therefore owe, to some extent, to that two hours long conversation of 10 years ago". In January 1992, the Trade Union of Agriculture "Samoobrona" was registered. The political party, which initially appeared under
17430-407: The image of the party, while forming a government with right-wing parties and the LiS caused distrust among the party's overwhelmingly left-wing electorate. As a result, the party gained less than 2% of the popular vote in the 2007 Polish parliamentary election , failing to win any seats and being excluded from government funding. The last bill proposed by Samoobrona before losing all of its seats in
17596-538: The language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other than English , 0.25% of the US population, and 6% of the Polish-American population. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census (over 50%) were found in three states: Illinois (185,749), New York (111,740), and New Jersey (74,663). Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services (which has
17762-566: The late 1970s he participated in an economic-advisory team associated with the prime minister of People's Republic of Poland . In 1978–1980 he worked at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism . Later he became an economics expert in the pro-democracy independent trade union Solidarity (NSZZ "Solidarność") . From 1989 to 1991 and also between 1997 and 2000 he was the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Poland. Between 1995 and 2000 he
17928-694: The leader of Self-Defence, Andrzej Lepper . A slowly on-going rise in discontent continued into the 2000s, and in 2002, when asked about the Balcerowicz Plan, 78% of Poles described their economic situation as bad, and nearly 40% preferred to live in socialist Poland - amongst rural residents and skilled workers, this figure rose to 50%. On the other hand, neoliberal economists and experts such as Krzysztof Sobczak, Jeffrey Sachs (who personally advised Balcerowicz), and Jacek Rostowski agree that without introducing such radical changes, Poland's economic success and steady economic growth would not have been possible. Other economists and political scientists criticized
18094-496: The leader of the populist Self-Defense ( Samoobrona ) party, created the slogan: "Balcerowicz must go" ( Balcerowicz musi odejść ), echoing the disgruntlement felt by some Poles with Balcerowicz's plan. However, since 2013, the unemployment rate has not exceeded 10% and in 2019 has reached the record low of 3.8%. During the Eurozone crisis Balcerowicz has been an outspoken supporter for fiscal discipline and has been frequently dubbed
18260-439: The letter y . The predominant stress pattern in Polish is penultimate stress – in a word of more than one syllable, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Alternating preceding syllables carry secondary stress, e.g. in a four-syllable word, where the primary stress is on the third syllable, there will be secondary stress on the first. Each vowel represents one syllable, although the letter i normally does not represent
18426-474: The long term could lead to the full unification of political structures representing Polish farmers and the rural population. However, this proposal failed as both parties started strongly competing with each other. In this situation, cooperation was limited to undertaking successive joint initiatives aimed at bringing together and working out common positions by the three largest agricultural trade unions; in June 1998 it
18592-459: The main representative of the Polish left: The SdRP established itself for over a decade as a virtual monopolist in two ways: as a successor party to the communist PZPR and as a voice of the broadly understood Polish Left (united under the Democratic Left Alliance umbrella). The so far only serious challenge to these functions came after the turn of the century from the Self-Defense (Samoobrona),
18758-403: The majority of students trusted him, according to surveys. Surprisingly, 9.4 percent of the self-employed voters - i.e. those doing private business - voted for Samoobrona, most of them being small entrepreneurs who feared economic competition in the event of Poland joining the EU. Overall, Lepper was elected by eleven percent of male and seven percent of female voters. He received eight per cent of
18924-431: The middle aged and young speak vernaculars close to standard Polish, while the traditional dialects are preserved among older people in rural areas. First-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty recognizing the regional and social differences. The modern standard dialect , often termed as "correct Polish", is spoken or at least understood throughout
19090-460: The most widely spoken variant of Polish across the country, and most dialects stopped being the form of Polish spoken in villages. Poland is one of the most linguistically homogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their first language . Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in areas which were once administered or occupied by Poland, notably in neighboring Lithuania , Belarus , and Ukraine . Polish
19256-622: The name Tarzan . Leszek Balcerowicz Defunct Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz ( pronounced [ˈlɛʂɛk balt͡sɛˈrɔvit͡ʂ] ; born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor at Warsaw School of Economics . He served as Chairman of the National Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twice as Deputy Prime Minister of Poland (1989–1991, 1997–2001). In 1989, he became Minister of Finance in Tadeusz Mazowiecki's first non-communist government and led
19422-600: The name Przymierze "Samoobrona", was registered on 12 June 1992. In addition to representatives of ZZR "Samoobrona", it also included activists from the Metalworkers' Trade Union and a Green faction headed by J. Bryczkowski. In its first political declaration, Samoobrona described itself as a "radical" party that represents the interests of the economically disadvantaged and those living in poverty. The beginnings of Samoobrona activity date to Lepper's home village Darłowo , which has been plunged into poverty between 1989 and 1991 as
19588-631: The nobles in Poland–Lithuania in the 15th century. The history of Polish as a language of state governance begins in the 16th century in the Kingdom of Poland . Over the later centuries, Polish served as the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Congress Poland , the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria , and as the administrative language in the Russian Empire 's Western Krai . The growth of
19754-659: The others being Czech orthography and Croatian orthography , the last of these being a 19th-century invention trying to make a compromise between the first two. Kashubian uses a Polish-based system, Slovak uses a Czech-based system, and Slovene follows the Croatian one; the Sorbian languages blend the Polish and the Czech ones. Historically, Poland's once diverse and multi-ethnic population utilized many forms of scripture to write Polish. For instance, Lipka Tatars and Muslims inhabiting
19920-401: The palatal sounds / ɕ / , / ʑ / , / tɕ / , / dʑ / and / ɲ / is as follows: before the vowel i the plain letters s, z, c, dz, n are used; before other vowels the combinations si, zi, ci, dzi, ni are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic forms ś, ź, ć, dź, ń are used. For example, the s in siwy ("grey-haired"), the si in siarka ("sulfur") and
20086-446: The parliamentary inquiry committee regarding the Rywin affair ; SLD explained that "Samoobrona was, is and will probably remain the SLD's main de facto ally and this is no surprise." Surprisingly, Lepper was also supported by the far-right and anti-capitalist League of Polish Families . However, later in 2003, Samoobrona rebelled against the SLD and broke both the local coalitions as well as
20252-426: The party 53 seats in the Sejm , with 10.5% support, making it the third largest political force. In September 2001, the winner of the election, the social democratic Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), was looking for a coalition partner in order to form a working majority. Because of its left-wing and pro-communist profile, Samoobrona was considered and the SLD leadership almost made the government offer, but eventually
20418-478: The party as a strong and cohesive patriotic team. According to contemporary newspapers, election spots of the Lepper movement were also among the best presented in the campaign by all parties. Among their numerous exploits there are such diverse incidents as using their own loudspeakers after being cut off for exceeding the permitted time, or claiming that the largest opposition party ( Civic Platform ) met with members of
20584-412: The party settled with its old coalition partner instead - Polish People's Party. Although officially a member of the opposition, Samoobrona backed the ruling social democratic Democratic Left Alliance in a number of key votes, giving them the majority needed to stay in power. The party has also marked its presence in the Sejm by unconventional disruptive behavior. The 2001 election was a huge trump for
20750-537: The party system. However, the run in the 1991 Polish parliamentary election was unsuccessful - something that Lepper attributed to lack of his direct participation in the campaign. The list of the Provincial Farmers' Self-Defence Committee ( Polish : Wojewódzki Komitet Samoobrony Rolników ) opened by the party's leader received only 3,247 votes in constituency number 21, covering the then Koszalin and Słupsk voivodeships. Registered in only one of 37 constituencies,
20916-485: The party to take power. The analyses of the Pentor Institute show that in April 2002, 18 percent of those questioned, i.e. almost one in five Poles, supported Samoobrona. From January to May 2002, the party's acceptance and popularity rose considerably from 9 to 17 per cent. Despite the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) ultimately deciding against choosing Samoobrona as its coalition partner, Samoobrona initially supported
21082-401: The party's electoral defeat and announced an extraordinary congress of Self-Defence in the first half of 2008. Lepper also announced that he did not intend to challenge or clash with the Party of Regions. In party congress, Lepper stressed that Samoobrona's goals from the time when it was a classic protest party, such as the reversal of privatisation processes, had not been realised and were still
21248-558: The party, which unexpectedly became the third political force in Poland. The support for Lepper's organisation in the Koszaliński district reached 23%; over 15% was recorded in the Sieradz, Chełm and Piotrków districts. Samoobrona still had weak support in big cities: in Warsaw it received 3%, in the Poznań district 5%, and in the districts of Gdańsk, Gliwice and Katowice - 6% each. The campaign itself
21414-529: The party. In addition to an increase in the purchase price of pork livestock, they demanded extensive government intervention in the cereal, meat and milk markets. The agreement concluded with the government on 8 February 1999 only emboldened the head of Samoobrona to further excesses. In June 1999, on the radio in Łódź, Andrzej Lepper called the then government "an anti-Polish and anti-human regime" and Deputy Prime Minister Tomaszewski "a bandit from Pabianice". The prosecution proceedings initiated in this case ended in
21580-469: The plan - Adam Przeworski described Balcerowicz Plan as a "a pure trickle-down model of reforms", and argued that Balcerowicz neglected the social costs of the reform, focusing only on growth. The economic growth produced by the reforms did not trickle down to average citizen. Polish economist Tadeusz Kowalik argues that Balcerowicz's reforms were a failure, stating that the good economic performance of Poland in comparison to other post-communist Poland
21746-401: The police and causing several dozen people, including Andrzej Lepper to be detained. A few months aftwards, several thousand farmers from the "Solidarity" of Individual Farmers, Farmers' Circles and Samoobrona demonstrated in front of the government seat in Warsaw, throwing sacks of straw to symbolise poverty in the countryside. Finally, the mayor of Praszka, Włodzimierz Skoczek, was taken away in
21912-511: The previously Polish-ruled territories in the east that were annexed by the USSR , resulting in the present-day Polish-speaking communities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, although many Poles were expelled from those areas to areas within Poland's new borders. To the east of Poland, the most significant Polish minority lives in a long strip along either side of the Lithuania - Belarus border. Meanwhile,
22078-464: The protests of 1991. Already functioning as the National Council of the Trade Union "Self-Defense", Samoobrona delivered a new ultimatum to the government in early 1992, including the clearing of farm debts and a program of "cheap" credit for farmers, with cheap defined as credits with an interest rate below the inflation level, which amounted to 40% in 1992. After the demands were ignored, Samoobrona
22244-402: The purchasing power of Polish agriculture. This was combined with a huge decrease in farmers' real income. In Lepper's region, the situation became particularly critical as a result of heavy rainfall, which caused local flooding. On 18 January 1991, the first rally was organised in Darłowo, attended by local farmers and the unemployed, including Andrzej Lepper. During the rally, protesters formed
22410-413: The radical, far-left character of Samoobrona, whereas Labor Union protested Samoobrona's opposition to the European Union. Nevertheless, the coalition performed well and won 89 seats. Social Alliance was an unprecedented case of the PSL working together with much more radical Self-Defence, and there was speculation at the time about the possibility of a permanent alliance being formed on its basis, which in
22576-445: The request of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, President Lech Kaczyński dismissed Lepper from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. This decision marked the end of the coalition. As the sting operation against Lepper failed, it sparked an outrage. It was questioned whether the operation was ordered by Kaczyński himself, or if it initiated by the Polish secret services on their own volition. Some experts, such as
22742-550: The rising Civic Platform. On 29 July 2009, four out of five members of the National Broadcasting Council: Barbara Babula (recommended by Law and Justice), Piotr Boroń (representing President Lech Kaczyński), Tomasz Borysiuk (recommended by Samoobrona), Witold Kołodziejski (recommended by Law and Justice), elected the Supervisory Board of Telewizja Polska, which included people associated with
22908-540: The same applies to the first and second person plural past tense endings -śmy, -ście , although this rule is often ignored in colloquial speech (so zro bi liśmy 'we did' should be prescriptively stressed on the second syllable, although in practice it is commonly stressed on the third as zrobi li śmy ). These irregular stress patterns are explained by the fact that these endings are detachable clitics rather than true verbal inflections: for example, instead of ko go zoba czy liście? ('whom did you see?') it
23074-416: The same time, they were also invited to negotiations by the country's leaders. Self-Defence used its formal dual status as a party and a trade union, which allowed it to put on whatever hat was appropriate at the time. In the late 1990s, Lepper reportedly maintained a particularly close relationship with Artur Balazs , an agriculture minister who led the liberal-conservative Conservative People's Party , which
23240-541: The scandals and investigations started against him were aimed at eliminating competition for Lech Kaczyński for future presidential elections. After unsuccessful attempts of Law and Justice to convince some of the Samoobrona MPs to defect, the PiS-Samoobrona-LPR coalition was officially dissolved on 5 August 2007. Reasons cited were ideological differences between PiS and Samoobrona on fundamental levels. Following
23406-410: The series of affricate and palatal consonants that resulted from four Proto-Slavic palatalizations and two further palatalizations that took place in Polish. The full set of consonants, together with their most common spellings, can be presented as follows (although other phonological analyses exist): Neutralization occurs between voiced – voiceless consonant pairs in certain environments, at
23572-500: The six of standard Polish) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved from Common Slavic times and not found anywhere else among the West Slavic languages . However, it was described by some linguists as lacking most of the linguistic and social determinants of language-hood. Many linguistic sources categorize Silesian as a regional language separate from Polish, while some consider Silesian to be
23738-456: The state of natural disaster be declared in Darłowo, along with demanding special aid and compensation to affected farmers. Lepper also made an appeal to the local voivode that the government temporarily suspends the enforcement of unpaid debts on local citizens. His plea was ignored. In front of the Darlowo town hall on 24 September, farmers put up unpaid agricultural equipment, having fallen into
23904-542: The sting operation to Lepper. Ultimately the investigation against Kaczmarek was dropped in 2009, putting into question whether Lepper was warned beforehand at all, or if he cancelled the meetings for other reason. The party's position towards the scandal was that it was a "coup attempt", as the presence of Samoobrona in the government supposedly thratened powerful "interest groups", including corporations controlling large-format shops, investment fund owners, land speculators and property development groups. Lepper also argued that
24070-494: The stress normally becomes regular. For example, uniwersytet ( /uɲiˈvɛrsɨtɛt/ , 'university') has irregular stress on the third (or antepenultimate) syllable, but the genitive uniwersytetu ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛtu/ ) and derived adjective uniwersytecki ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛt͡skʲi/ ) have regular stress on the penultimate syllables. Loanwords generally become nativized to have penultimate stress. In psycholinguistic experiments, speakers of Polish have been demonstrated to be sensitive to
24236-573: The three parties of the "media coalition". All three heads of Telewizja Polska (Szwedo, Szatkowski, Orzeł) were associated with the Law and Justice party - the informal arrangement assumed that the position of TVP president went to PiS, and of two vice-presidents - to Samoobrona and Democratic Left Alliance. Polish language Polish ( endonym : język polski , [ˈjɛ̃zɘk ˈpɔlskʲi] , polszczyzna [pɔlˈʂt͡ʂɘzna] or simply polski , [ˈpɔlskʲi] )
24402-422: The tradition of the interwar peasant movement, Catholic social teaching, nationalism, and "real socialism" (the socialism of Polish People's Republic). While unsuccessful, the electoral run spread the message of Samoobrona to a wider audience, and it was soon able to form associations with farmer movements across Poland. Three months later, the second wave of farmer protests then emerged, with greater intensity than
24568-591: The two-party system of right-wing populist Law and Justice and centre-right neoliberal Civic Platform started consolidating itself, Samoobrona entered an "anti-neoliberal" media pact together with Law and Justice and Democratic Left Alliance. Informally known as the "media coalition", the pact was based on filling the managerial positions in Telewizja Polska (TVP) (Polish state media) with PiS-aligned persons that would exclude Samoobrona and Democratic Left Alliance from criticism and attacks in favour of focusing solely on
24734-495: The unemployed, farmers. He demanded the departure of every successive government, especially ministers of agriculture. Some political commentators asserted that Lepper's actions were radicalising and argued that the party should be banned because of the criminal cases pending against the Samoobrona trade union: concerning, among other things, the occupation of state administration buildings and blockades of public roads, preventing government officials from carrying out their legal duties,
24900-419: The use of blackmail and intimidation against bank and court officials, and the seizure of private property. Lepper consistently dominated the headlines by organising spectacular protests, such as the one outside the Sejm on 19 February 1993, when farmers set up 19 large scythes and one small one - as a "lady scythe" that was intended for Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka. By this time, Lepper was emerging not only as
25066-588: The votes from voters aged 18 to 24, ten per cent from 25 to 59 and seven per cent from voters over 60. Samoobrona received 16 per cent of the vote in rural areas, eight per cent in towns with up to 50,000 inhabitants, seven per cent in towns between 50,000 and 200,000 and five per cent in towns with over 200,000 inhabitants. Samoobrona was particularly popular after the 2001 election - the survey conducted for "Rzeczpospolita" showed that in March 2002, 11 percent of Poles supported Samoobrona. In May 2002, 17 percent of Poles wanted
25232-563: The vowel i is changed to y , e.g. Syria , Sybir , synchronizacja , Syrakuzy . The following table shows the correspondence between the sounds and spelling: Digraphs and trigraphs are used: Similar principles apply to / kʲ / , / ɡʲ / , / xʲ / and /lʲ/ , except that these can only occur before vowels, so the spellings are k, g, (c)h, l before i , and ki, gi, (c)hi, li otherwise. Most Polish speakers, however, do not consider palatalization of k, g, (c)h or l as creating new sounds. Except in
25398-443: The word, the phoneme / x / can be spelt h or ch , the phoneme / ʐ / can be spelt ż or rz , and / u / can be spelt u or ó . In several cases it determines the meaning, for example: może ("maybe") and morze ("sea"). In occasional words, letters that normally form a digraph are pronounced separately. For example, rz represents /rz/ , not / ʐ / , in words like zamarzać ("freeze") and in
25564-444: Was a radical left-wing party that by postulating the need to stop privatisation and protect workers' interests, often overlapped with neo-communist parties. In English-language literature, the party is described as a radical left-populist party. In the wake of the SLD 's electoral defeat in 2005, Self-Defence was sometimes referred to as the "new left". It was also called a left-wing party with
25730-432: Was agreed that ZZR "Samoobrona" together with KZRKiOR and NSZZ "Solidarność" RI would work out a common position on the terms of Poland's accession to the European Union. The coalition also contributed to Samoobrona's rise to relevance. Shortly before the 2001 Polish parliamentary election , there emerged a project of a "Workers' and Peasants' Alliance" ( Polish : Sojusz Robotniczo-Chłopski, SRC ) combining Samoobrona and
25896-578: Was also alleged. This led to calls for a parliamentary enquiry into the origins of the party and possibly its hidden agendas. One of the most striking features of Self-Defence was undoubtedly its clear longing for the former regime, which was identified with social stability and prosperity. Samoobrona repeated slogans about the corruption of power, disregard for peasants and workers, accused the government of stealing Polish land and property and selling it to international capitalists, while Lepper also spoke of Poles starving in small towns and villages - pensioners,
26062-486: Was caused by much better initial economic conditions. Kowalik accusses Balcerowicz of squandering a unique opportunity of creating a fair and egalitarian socio-economic system, instead creating a system "whose trademarks became mass and permanent unemployment, for many years the highest in Central Europe and then the highest in the EU; one of the highest income disparities; the dismantling of the welfare state. Added to this
26228-409: Was characterised by a much calmer tone and much less aggression. A breakthrough in the ratings of the Lepper movement occurred at the beginning of September, when it reached a borderline 4-5% support in polls, which jumped to 8-9% after just a few weeks. Lepper achieved only 3 percent nationwide among voters with a university degree and only 8 percent among voters with a high school diploma, even though
26394-415: Was compensated by further gains amongst left-wing voters - mainly pensioners, workers of bankrupt workplaces and former officers of the uniformed services. According to contemporary polls, Self-Defence overtook Democratic Left Alliance in terms of popularity. Contemporary commentators speculated that Self-Defence might emerge as the new main left-wing party in Poland. Parallel to its parliamentary activity,
26560-573: Was elected member of Galeria Chwały Polskiej Ekonomii , a hall of fame for "outstanding Polish economists". Balcerowicz was a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor , an independent initiative hosted by the UNDP and the first global initiative to focus specifically on the link between exclusion, poverty and the law. He is also a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body,
26726-477: Was joined in with other trade unions and farmer associations in aummer 1992, organizing nationwide farmer protests that soon turned radical and even violent, earning Samoobrona its reputation as a radical formation. Samoobrona then started defining its ideological character, stating the need for farmers to stand against "the dictatorship of the International Monetary Fund" and arguing: "Under communism,
26892-405: Was left-wing and aligned with socialist ideals, while LPR was a National-Catholic, far-right party. Andrzej Lepper himself admitted that the alliance was a bad idea, and argued that the alliance was purely situation and tactical in nature. The idea was highly unpopular amongst Samoobrona supporters, as a majority of them identified as left-wing and desired a return to a socialist economy. A chunk of
27058-419: Was part of the ruling AWS. Over the years, Balazs and Lepper together built up an extensive network of patronage in the state agricultural authorities. Balazs again served as a bridge between Lepper and the conservative right in 2005. The party first started in parliamentary elections in 1993 , gaining 2.78% votes and failing to enter the Sejm. It also took part in the 1994 local elections, where it did not play
27224-473: Was ruled a suicide by hanging. The origins of Samoobrona date back to a spontaneous protest movement of farmers from Western Pomerania (the Darlowo area is the hometown of A. Lepper) and the Zamojszczyzna region, which developed into a trade union. The very creation of the political party was originally aimed solely at supporting the 'Samoobrona' Trade Union of Agriculture (ZZR 'Samoobrona'), which had played
27390-528: Was the breaking down of workers' negotiating power. The shock operation meant consenting to the introduction of the worst variety of capitalism into Poland." Balcerowicz was also critized by Polish economist and former Finance Minister Grzegorz Kołodko , who described Balcerowicz Plan as "shock without therapy". Kołodko notes that Balcerowicz promised only a slight increase in unemployment and poverty, while in reality Polish GDP fell by 20% and rendered millions of Poles unemployed. According to Kołodko, "Balcerowicz
27556-683: Was the chairman of Freedom Union , a centrist free-market political party. On 22 December 2000 he became the Chairman of the National Bank of Poland. He was also a columnist for Wprost , a Polish news magazine. On 11 November 2005, the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski , awarded L. Balcerowicz with the Order of the White Eagle for his "contribution to Poland's economic transformation". In 2006 he
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