Alliance of Democrats (Poland)
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The Alliance of Democrats
Stronnictwo Demokratyczne |
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|---|---|
| Leader | Paweł Piskorski |
| Founded | 18 September 1937 |
| Headquarters | ul. Chmielna 9, 00-021 Warsaw |
| Ideology |
Liberalism Economic liberalism |
| Political position | Centre |
| European affiliation | European Democratic Party |
| European Parliament group | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Colours | Blue |
| Sejm |
0 / 460
|
| Senate |
0 / 100
|
| European Parliament |
0 / 50
|
| Website | |
| www |
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The Alliance of Democrats (Polish: Stronnictwo Demokratyczne, SD) is a Polish centrist party. The party faced a revival in 2009, when it was joined by liberal politician Paweł Piskorski, formerly a member of Civic Platform.
The Alliance of Democrats has its origins in the Democratic Clubs, which were opposed to authoritarian and nationalistic tendencies in the Second Republic of Poland between the two World Wars (1919–1939). The first club was founded in Warsaw in September 1937, and by 1938 there were clubs in all major urban centres, with active participation of the co-founders of Polish independence, whose primary objective was ensuring a fully democratic political system in Poland. The national founding convention of the Alliance of Democrats was held on 15 April 1939. The Declaration of Policy included such issues as improvement of the national economy, a development plan to raise the level of education, and modernisation of the armed forces. Mieczysław Michałowicz, a member of the Senate, was appointed the first party leader of the Alliance.
During World War II, a significant number of Alliance members were involved in the anti-Nazi Polish underground. One of its major leader was active in the Vila Ghetto. It was partly due to their initiative that Żegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, was founded in 1942 as well as the Social Organisation for Self-Defence. The Alliance of Democrats and other political and social organisations set up the Association of Democrats, which then entered the Council of National Unity, the Polish Underground State Parliament. In 1943 SD split into two factions, one of which supported the Polish Government-in-Exile in London, and the second co-operated with the communist Polish Workers' Party and recognized the State Country Council as the actual parliament and the Provisional Government of National Unity as the actual government of Poland. In 1945, following the Red Army seizure of Poland, two members of the Association, Eugeniusz Czarnowski and Stanisław Michałowski, were arrested by the NKVD and tried in the Stalinist-orchestrated Trial of the Sixteen, aimed at eliminating non-communist Polish political leadership.
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Wikipedia