Freedom Union (Poland)
|
Freedom Union
Unia Wolności |
|
|---|---|
| Chairman | Władysław Frasyniuk (1999-2005) |
| Founded | 20 March 1994 |
| Dissolved | 9 May 2005 |
| Merger of |
Democratic Union Liberal Democratic Congress |
| Succeeded by |
Democratic Party Civic Platform |
| Ideology |
Liberalism, Social liberalism, Christian democracy |
| Political position | Centre-right to Centre-left |
| European affiliation | European Democrat Union |
The Freedom Union (Polish: Unia Wolności, UW) was a liberal democratic political party in Poland.
It was founded on 20 March 1994 out of the merger of the Democratic Union (Unia Demokratyczna, UD) and the Liberal Democratic Congress (Kongres Liberalno-Demokratyczny, KLD). Both of these parties had roots in the Solidarity trade union movement. It represented European democratic and liberal tradition, i.e., it advocated free market economy and individual liberty, rejected extremism and fanaticism, favoured European integration (in the form of European Union membership), rapid privatisation of the enterprises still owned by the Polish state and decentralisation of the government.
In the 1991 general elections, the KLD received 7.5% of the vote and 37 seats in the Sejm (out of 460 seats) and the UD got 12.3% of the votes and 62 seats. In 1993 the KLD got 4.0% of the votes and was left without seats; the UD got 10.6% of the votes and 74 seats. In 1997 the UW got 13.4% of the votes and 60 seats.
In January 2001 some members of the FU decided to move to join the new Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska), which got 12.7% of the votes and 65 seats in the September 2001 general elections whilst the FU failed to cross the 5% threshold required to gain entry to the lower house of Parliament, receiving only 3.1%. Surprisingly, the FU managed to cross the required 5% threshold in the 2004 European Parliament elections, receiving 7% of votes and 4 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament as part of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, of which it was a member.
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