MarketNational Party of Retirees and Pensioners
Company Profile

National Party of Retirees and Pensioners

National Party of Retirees and Pensioners is a minor left-wing political party in Poland. The main goal of KPEiR is protecting retired seniors, pensioners and trust-busting. The current leader is former Sejm Member Tomasz Mamiński.

History
In the second half of 1991, parties for pensioners began to emerge independently in Poland. By the end of 1993 there were 7 large entities. On 20 November 1993 the four largest - the Polish Pensioners' and Annuitants' Party in Bydgoszcz, the Polish Pensioners' and Annuitants' Protection Party in Łódź, the Polish Pensioners' and Annuitants' Party "Jedność" in Konin and the Pensioners' and Annuitants' Party in Koszalin - concluded an agreement on their unification. The unification congress took place on 4–5 June 1994 in Przysiek. In the 1995 Polish presidential election, the party supported Tadeusz Zieliński (ombudsman, Union of Labour candidate). at the end of this term a councillor of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Sejmik elected from the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland list became affiliated with the party. In the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, KPEiR established its own electoral committee, but withdrew from the elections and did not give official support to other parties. In the 2009 European Parliament election in Poland, KPEiR candidates ran on the lists of the SLD-UP coalition, but did not win any of the 7 MEP seats that went to the committee. In the 2010 Polish local elections, the party fielded lists to the Sejmiks in 13 provinces, receiving a total of 1.82% of the vote, which was the fifth highest result nationally. The party did not reach the electoral threshold in any province, with the best result in the provinces of Pomorskie (4.14%), Lubuskie (3.96%) and Łódzkie (3.05%). The NAPE also won fifth seats in municipal councils and 1 in city councils. On 22 March 2011, the party signed an agreement to run jointly in the 2011 Polish parliamentary election with the Party of Regions and the Democratic Association (the Pawel Piskorski part of the Democratic Party opposing the leadership). In the end, however, a joint run-off did not take place, and the KPEiR reached an agreement with the Democratic Left Alliance. Many KPEiR members, including the party's general secretary Tadeusz Staniewski and former construction minister Andrzej Aumiller, found themselves on the party's lists. One of the vice-presidents of the KPEiR, Sławomir Słomka, in turn became a candidate of the Polska Jest Najważniejsza party. Unofficially, some KPEiR activists were also on the lists of the Polska Partia Pracy - Sierpień 80. No KPEiR member won a seat in the Sejm. On 19 April 2012, party leader Tomasz Mamiński resigned from his position and his duties were taken over by Tadeusz Staniewski. There were also other changes in the party's top leadership. Among other things, Andrzej Pstrokoński became the general secretary of the KPEiR. On 31 May, Tadeusz Staniewski was replaced as acting chairman by Wojciech Kornowski, and elections for the new authorities were scheduled for 20 September. Tadeusz Staniewski again became party leader, and Wojciech Kornowski, together with a group of activists (including Andrzej Aumiller and former KPEiR deputy chairman Andrzej Kiselka), founded the Pensioners' Party of the Republic of Poland (formally existing until 2017). The KPEiR established close cooperation with the Democratic Left Alliance in November. In 2014, the KPEiR signed an agreement to work closely with the Alliance of the Democratic Left, but its activists were not on the electoral lists for the European Parliament. On 7 May, Tomasz Mamiński was re-elected as head of the KPEiR. In the 2014 Polish local elections KPEiR was, together with the Democratic Left Alliance and the Union of Labour, a member of the SLD Lewica Razem coalition, for which it fielded candidates for councillors at various levels. In the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, several KPEiR activists ran for the Sejm from the United Left lists, which did not win seats. In June 2018, the KPEiR was among the organisations reactivating the SLD Lewica Razem coalition, although it had previously (in May) joined the Civic Coalition in Podkarpacie. In September, the party tied up with the KO at the national level, declaring to run from its lists (which did not happen). In the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland, the party did not run. In 2019 Polish parliamentary election, the party registered its own election committee, but also did not participate. In the 2020 Polish presidential election KPEiR supported Waldemar Witkowski, chairman of the UP. ==Ideology==
Ideology
The National Party of Retirees and Pensioners was called democratic socialist, social democratic and left-wing. Joshua K. Dubrow argues that the party is even further left than its social-democratic allies and represents a variant of democratic socialism; according to a 2008 survey by Polish Panel Survey, the party was ranked the highest amongst the poorest and most disadvantages Polish voter groups. Polish sociologist Rafał Pankowski described the party as "left-radical". KPEiR claims to represent not only the interests of pensioners, but every weak and disadvantaged group of Polish society at large. In its program, the party stated its intention to also stand up for people with disabilities, "poor people disadvantaged by social injustice", single parents, the unemployed and the homeless. The party not only valued common good over individualism, but also argued that "defending the most vulnerable in society" should be the priority of Polish state and the Polish economic system. KPEiR also made appeals to regionalists and regional minorities, believing that Poland should develop a strongly decentralised system of territorial self-governance that would result in "small homelands", with every region having its own identity and traditions distinct from the unitary Polish ones. Despite its socialist orientation, the party was friendly towards the Catholic Church and stated its support for the Catholic social teaching, especially that of Pope John Paul II. According to the manifesto of the National Party of Retirees and Pensioners, the party supports the Catholic Church and subscribes to the Catholic teaching "with its principles of faith hope and charity, social justice and solidarity, compassion and assistance to those in need, with the message one alongside the other and not one against the other". ==References==
tickerdossier.comtickerdossier.substack.com