Is Poland's PO party left or right wing?

Hi Everyone.

This weekend i was visiting my girlfriend in Poland and we were talking about politics (one of my favorite subjects).

Then she said to me that she is leftist.

It was surprising for me because i ever saw her opinions as being from a good right-wing girl (pro free-iniative, pro-free enterprise, capitalism and individual freedom). So i asked if she voted for SLD.

Then she said that she voted to PO. Then i said "But PO is not left, they are pro-free market and pro free-enterprise". She said to me that in Poland just parties like PiS and Ruch Narodowy are considered right-wing.

But for me those parties are very nationalistic but not pro-capitalism and freedom at all.

So is PO left or right?

PO is considered in Poland as centre / centre-right party.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_Platform

Yes. I'd say they're economically on the right and socially centre right. Whereas PiS (a rival party) is economically on the left and socially on the right.

Relative to what? The Left-Right paradigm is increasingly unclear, especially in the developed world. For example, I don't think anyone could call any of the three main UK parties right wing. They are all social democratic parties in the Western European mould. In Poland there are politicians who are so far to the right on social issues that it is hard to imagine them ever operating elsewhere in Europe, or even in much of the United States, apart from the more intellectually underdeveloped states. As for economics, PiS has to try to please a constituency which has largely lost out in the post-communist era. PO is a run-of-the-mill European Social Democratic party with sometimes surprisingly liberal attitudes. They get my vote largely because they aren't PiS.

1 - That is why Poland now is not completely overtake and messed like France or Britain.

2 - A lot of the most developed states of USA actually have republican government. From the top 5 most developed, 3 are governed by republicans: Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland, among many others.

And fortunately this is the prevailing opinion in Poland, especially in the major cities.


Fortunately the electorate are decent enough most of the time to keep those individuals well away from power.


Pretty well true - life has got better during their time.

PO is a band of thieves taht are incapable of even buying the new trades
In the American terms they have created the mini-Watergate scandal a year ago, the ministers involved are still in office.
Apart from that their President is an underdeveloped ape that doesnt even know how to spell, he also doesnt talk much to the media apart from the once that are closer to the govt.

People have enough of the liberal (aka communist) dictate and hopeflly it will be shown in the polls if they will not mess about with the numbers too much this year...

If there's even a chance that the PiS cretin might win, I vote PO to keep the cretins out.


From the electoral point of view, after they shafted their coalition partners last time, they now have to win a clear majority of seats, which means getting at least 45% of the vote, which simply isn't happening.


I wonder if he is too underdeveloped to know the difference between 'ones' and 'once'.


Please look up the words 'liberal', 'communist' and 'dictate'. Thank you.

Please loo Jaruzelski's input into the BBN
Holy patron of the govt "professor" Bartoszewski
kindly check out the GDP, National debt, demographics stats under PiS and under PO-PSL

PO is a mixed bag, so is probably the closest to the center in Poland. One thing they do have in common is being criminals. It's a party of people who want to make as much money as they can, and being able to make the law helps them bend it in their favour.

Remember they got in office on a low turnout and by forming a coalition with extremists. They were also voted out before they'd completed a term of office - and that on a much higher turnout.


People did exactly that. They may not be perfect however the alternative is unpalatable to the electorate.

Merged: Schetyna's PO turns right

In a bid to shore up the Platform's popularity their leader Grzegorz Schetyna has announced plans to shift his party to the right. No more leftist experimentation, he says, the PO should revert to its liberal-conservative roots and project a Christian Democratic image. That appears to be a move to wean away those PiS backers who find Kaczyński and Maciererwicz too extreme. Will the gamble pay off? Simultaneously, such a move appears likely to alienate the PO's leftist-secularist wing. The question is: will the party's right turn win more backers than it loses or vice-versa!

If PO sheds its leftists (and a few liberal EU worshipers) , then of course PO would become attractive again.

But not to the secularist-progressives enamoured of gender on demand, feminism, hostile anti-clericalism, abortion "rights", test-tube babies, homo marriage and the like. From a strictly Realpolitik standpoint, one would have to know what percent of the PO membership and MPs support which faction.

Unlike many other European countries the majority in Poland would not support any of the above, the rights and wrongs of this stance will probably be debated for years to come.