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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Confederation Liberty And Independence
The Confederation Liberty and Independence (Polish: Konfederacja Wolność i Niepodległość), frequently shortened to just Confederation (Konfederacja), is a far-right political alliance in Poland. It was initially founded in 2018 as a political coalition for the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland, although it was later expanded into a political party in order to circumvent the 8% vote threshold for coalitions to enter the national parliament. It won 11 seats in the Sejm after the 2019 Polish parliamentary election. Its candidate for the 2020 Polish presidential election was Krzysztof Bosak, who placed fourth among eleven candidates.

A coalition mainly led by New Hope, the National Movement, and the Confederation of the Polish Crown, it is right-wing oriented and is considered to be a part of the radical right. It has expressed right-wing populist rhetoric and a more hardline opposition stance towards the European Union and immigration. It is economically liberal and has called for lowering taxes, and has also expressed socially conservative and Polish nationalist stances.

History

Two political parties, KORWiN and National Movement, announced in late 2018 that they had decided to run together in the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland. In early 2019, Grzegorz Braun's organization and Piotr Krzysztof Liroy-Marzec's party joined the coalition. Kaja Godek, an ultraconservative activist, announced that she would join the list. The coalition was initially dubbed the Pro-Polish Coalition. By late February 2019, it was changed to Konfederacja Korwin Braun Liroy Narodowcy. In March 2019, an application was submitted to register the party under that name, and the Federation for the Republic of Poland soon joined the alliance, including some representatives. Its name was changed again, this time to Confederation. In April the Party of Drivers joined the coalition, which soon afterward elected Marek Jakubiak as its chairman. The Confederation placed fourth in the 2019 European Parliament election, winning 4.55% of the popular vote, although it did not reach the electoral threshold. After the election, Braun applied for the registration of the Confederation of the Polish Crown.

The coalition was registered on 25 July 2019 under the name Confederation Liberty and Independence. Godek left the coalition soon after. Shortly before the 2019 Polish parliamentary election, a schism occurred in the coalition, with many representatives joining the coalition while some of them also left. The coalition ended up winning 6.81% of the popular vote and won 11 seats in the Sejm. Most of the support the party received was in southeast and northern parts of Poland. Around 20% of all young voters aged under-30 supported the grouping, about two-thirds of its voters were male, and more than three-fifths lived in smaller towns and rural areas. This has been highlighted as a significant change from previous right-wing alliances involving Korwin-Mikke where the base of support was almost exclusively young males. In November 2019, they presented nine candidates that took part in the 2019–20 Confederation presidential primary. The winner of the presidential primary was Krzysztof Bosak, who became the coalition candidate for the 2020 Polish presidential election. During the first round of the election, Bosak received 1,317,380 votes or 6.78%, coming fourth among eleven candidates.

In 2022, serious internal splits emerged as a result of Janusz Korwin-Mikke's pro-Russian and Ukrainophobic stances in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, causing several members to renounce their KORWiN memberships, albeit remaining within the coalition. Ahead of the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, they were considered possible kingmakers. Bosak, one of Confederation's leaders, said: "Confederation has no intention of prolonging PiS's power or facilitating Tusk's return to power. The majority of our voters do not want this." Korwin-Mikke, a former member of the European Parliament who is running for the party from the Warsaw region in 2023, has a history of sexist statements about women. He said: "I am against voting rights for women. This is biology. A woman at the age of 55, when estrogen stops working, reaches the age when she can finally vote." Ryszard Zajączkowski, a university professor and one of the coalition's candidates, said that Poles were subjected to what he described as genocide "at the hands of Jews working together with communists" after World War II, and said that communism is worse than fascism. He said: "Compared to which the Auschwitz camp could be called a holiday camp." In October 2023, Korwin-Mikke was suspended from the party and was removed as a candidate for the 2023 Polish parliamentary election.

On April 21, 2024, in the second round of the presidential elections in Bełchatów, Patryk Marjan [pl], a member of New Hope, was elected, becoming the party's first city president.

Ideology and position

The Confederation is a right-wing orientated political alliance, and it is positioned on the far right on the political spectrum. It is also considered to be a part of the radical right, although some have disputed that it does not contain all elements of the radical right.

Its ideology includes support for numerous right-wing populist ideas. It has presented a hardline opposition stance to the European Union, and has criticized its and Law and Justice's policies towards immigration, calling for harder stances against legal immigration instead. It is also socially conservative, and anti-feminist, it also supports total ban on abortion, and supports the traditional family model. It has also expressed xenophobic views, and has openly provided support for antisemitism. When it first ran in the 2019 European Parliament election, Sławomir Mentzen said: "We don't want Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes and the European Union." He has since tried to distance himself from this. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has also spread misinformation about COVID-19 and opposed laws that were implemented by the government.

Unlike the Law and Justice, its economic position is orientated towards economic liberalism, and it is considered strongly pro-free market. It is Polish nationalist, and has also been described as national-liberal. In its program, they have stated their goal "to turn Poland into a ethnocracy and culturally homogenous nation built around traditionalist-Catholic principles". It has also expressed nativist sentiment.

The party has supported weapons, financial aid and diplomatic support for Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, but argued that these should be conditioned on contracts for postwar rebuilding being guaranteed to Polish companies.

Platform

Confederation's platform includes the following promises, as well as others:

Composition

Current political parties

Name Ideology Position Leader MPs Senators MEPs Sejmiks Entry
National Movement Ultranationalism
National conservatism
Social conservatism
Militarism 		Far-right Krzysztof Bosak
6 / 460
0 / 100
0 / 51
0 / 552
 6 December 2018
New Hope Paleolibertarianism
Libertarian conservatism 		Right-wing to far-right Sławomir Mentzen
8 / 460
0 / 100
0 / 51
0 / 552
 6 December 2018
Confederation of the Polish Crown Monarchism
Traditionalism 		Far-right Grzegorz Braun
4 / 460
0 / 100
0 / 51
0 / 552
 7 January 2019
Union of Christian Families Social conservatism
Political Catholicism
Hard Euroscepticism 		Far-right Bogusław Rogalski
0 / 460
0 / 100
0 / 51
0 / 552
 13 August 2019
National League National democracy
Polish nationalism 		Far-right Zbigniew Lipiński
0 / 460
0 / 100
0 / 51
0 / 552
 5 September 2019

Current organisations and movements

Name Ideology Position Leader Type Entry
Agrarian-Consumer Confederation Agrarianism, free-market economy Krzysztof Tołwiński Informal organisation 29 November 2019
All-Polish Youth Catholic nationalism, ultra-nationalism, anti-LGBT Far-right Marcin Kowalski Political youth movement 6 December 2018
Conservative-Monarchist Club Traditionalist conservatism, monarchism, Catholic nationalism, counter-revolutionary, integralist conservatism, anti-democracy Far-right Adam Wielomski Philosophical and journalistic organisation 7 January 2019
Polish Peasant Bloc Agrarianism, conservatism Wojciech Mojzesowicz Informal organisation 6 December 2018

Former political parties

Name Ideology Position Leader Entry Exit
Federation for the Republic of Poland
(pl) 		Social conservatism, Political Catholicism, Economic liberalism Far-right Marek Jakubiak 6 March 2019 28 June 2019
Effective Direct-democracy
Hard Euroscepticism 		Piotr "Liroy" Marzec 1 September 2018 28 June 2019
Wolnościowcy Libertarianism Right-wing Artur Dziambor 17 March 2022 13 February 2023
Party of Drivers Right-wing populism
Anti-bureaucratism
Anti-environmentalism 		Right-wing Lech Kędzierski 10 April 2019 19 December 2022

Political parties who had members with individual agreements

Name Ideology Position Leader* Election Notes
Free and Solidary Solidarism
Anti-communism 		Right-wing to far-right Kornel Morawiecki 2019 Polish parliamentary election 4 party members were candidates for Piotr Liroy-Marzec's Efficient political party electoral committee in Constituency № 35 (Olsztyn) whilst the rest of the party, including its entire parliamentary club, were on Law and Justice's electoral lists.
Congress of the New Right Right-libertarianism
Economic liberalism
Hard Euroscepticism 		Right-wing Stanisław Żółtek 2019 Polish parliamentary election Used Federation for the Republic of Poland's electoral lists, which in turn were in agreement with the Right Wing of the Republic, and fielded candidates in the Kraków constituencies.
League of Polish Families Political Catholicism Right-wing to far-right Witold Bałażak 2019 Polish parliamentary election Despite being loosely affiliated with the Polish Coalition, they fielded only 1 candidate in Kraków from their electoral lists, whereas 2 other candidates used Confederation's electoral lists.
National Unity
(pl) 		Political Catholicism
Paleoconservatism 		Far-right Gabriel Janowski 2019 Polish parliamentary election Vice-chair of the party Paweł Połanecki was a candidate for Piotr Liroy-Marzec's Efficient political party electoral committee in the Kielce constituency, as no.2 on the list behind Piotr Liroy-Marzec himself.
*At the time in question

Former organisations and movements

Name Ideology Position Leader Type Entry Exit
Life and Family Foundation Anti-abortion movement
Anti-LGBT 		Far-right Kaja Godek Lobbyist foundation, social activist group 28 January 2019 9 August 2019

Results

Sejm

Election year Votes % Seats Change Government
2019 1,256,953 6.81 (#5)
11 / 460
 Increase 11 PiS
2023 1,547,364 7.16 (#5)
18 / 460
 Increase 7 KO–PL2050–KP–NL

Senate

Election year Votes % Seats Change Government
2019 144,124 0.79 (#6)
0 / 100
 Steady KO–KP–SLD
2023 1,443,836 6.75 (#6)
0 / 100
 Steady KO–PL2050–KP–NL–LR

Presidential

Election year Candidate 1st round 2nd round
No. of overall votes % of overall vote No. of overall votes % of overall vote
2020 Krzysztof Bosak 1,317,380 6.78 (#4)

European Parliament

Election Year Votes % Seats Change
2019 621,188 4.55 (#4)
0 / 52
 Decrease 4
2024 1,420,287 12.08 (#3)
6 / 53
 Increase 6

Regional assemblies

Election year Votes % Seats Change
2024 1,042,328 7.23 (#4)
2 / 552
 Increase 2
In coalition with Agreement and Bezpartyjni Samorządowcy which won 6 seats in total.

Internal

Year Election type Affiliation Final Candidate Number of initial candidates Number of rounds Final round
Electoral vote Percentage
2019–20 American-style presidential primary RN Bosak 9 1x 16 regional preliminaries
7x convention elimination 		163 51.9%
KKP Braun 146 46.5%

See also