The LPR was created just before the
elections in 2001 and gained 8% of the vote, giving it 38 out of 460 seats in the
Sejm and two seats in the
Senate. Its former leader,
Roman Giertych, studied Law and History at
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. During his career his political alliances have included such Polish National Democrats as Jan Łopuszański,
Antoni Macierewicz, Gabriel Janowski.
Roman Giertych reactivated the "
All-Polish Youth" (
Młodzież Wszechpolska) organisation in 1989, becoming its chairman; he remains honorary chairman. For several years he was a member of the National-Democratic Party (
Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne) and the
National Party (
Stronnictwo Narodowe), which merged with several other organisations to form the League of Polish Families (
Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) in 2001. Roman Giertych's father,
Maciej Giertych, also a member of LPR, is a former member of the
European Parliament. His grandfather was a member of parliament of the
Second Polish Republic prior to
World War II from the
National Democracy Party. Some sources claim that the LPR owes much of its success to
Radio Maryja, a Catholic radio station with a nationalist, ultra-conservative agenda. The performance of League of Polish Families in the September 2001 elections, has been partly attributed to its well publicized and uncompromising attitude towards the
Jedwabne pogrom. During the election campaign
Ryszard Bender, one of the LPR founders and leaders, participated in LPR television broadcasts denying the facts of the Jedwabne pogrom of 1941 and accusing President
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who participated in commemoration ceremony, that took place in the village of Jedwabne in July 2001, of bowing to Jewish interest groups. Soon after the election in 2001 a group of deputies separated from LPR, creating a new party known now as
Polish Agreement led by Jan Łopuszański and
Catholic-National Movement (Ruch Katolicko-Narodowy) led by
Antoni Macierewicz. In the
2004 elections to the European Parliament, LPR received 15,2% votes, which gave it 10 out of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the
European Parliament. This made the LPR the second-largest party in Poland in that election, second only to the
liberal conservative Civic Platform (PO), and well ahead of the then ruling post-
communist Democratic Left Alliance, the populist
Samoobrona and the
conservative Law and Justice (PiS). However, the overall turnout of that election was less than 20% of eligible voters. Thus, the long-term significance of the LPR's strong performance in that election is unclear. In the
2005 elections, LPR again received 8% of votes, but saw its seats reduced from 38 to 34. However, it gained five seats in the Senate, taking it up to seven. The 2005 election produced no clear winner, producing a political gridlock and a possibility of new elections. The two largest parties, PiS and PO, entered negotiations in order to form a "grand coalition". The PiS-PO coalition was supported by 44% of PiS voters and 78% of PO voters. However, PO broke off negotiations - PO complained that although PiS offered it half of the Polish 16 ministries, none of them included the so-called "power-ministries" (interior, justice and secret services), which led to fears that PiS would abuse its control over the Polish justice system. PO also noted that PiS had been shifting to the left economically, whereas PO was staunchly neoliberal. Ultimately, PiS settled down for a minority government, composed entirely of PiS members. However, the party began losing popular support in 2006, which eventually forced it to form a "stabilization pact" with League of Polish Families and Samoobrona. All three parties were, to varying degrees, socially conservative and economically left-leaning. For its part, LPR demanded the withdrawal of the Polish army from Iraq, renegotiation of the EU accession treaty, as well as "pro-family" economic policy. LPR also abandoned the coalition, accusing PiS of abandoning what LPR called the “national-socialist program” that all three parties agreed to in the stabilization pact. However, the formation rapidly declined in polls as Samoobrona and LPR clashed with each other, which led to dissolution of LiS in September 2007. Ultimately, Samoobrona and LPR ran separately. In
the 2007 Parliamentary election, both parties failed to gain the 5% of votes required to enter the
Sejm and lost all its seats, in addition to failing meeting the 3% of votes requirement for eligibility to receive government funding. The leader of LPR,
Roman Giertych, stepped down from his post as the party's leader, while Lepper died in 2011. The left-wing populist appeal of Samoobrona was taken and consolidated by PiS. Likewise, PiS "neutralized" LPR by appropriating its Catholic nationalist rhetoric and sociocultural stances. Some present or former members of LPR (including
Janusz Dobrosz) and five of its MEPs moved to
Forward Poland in 2008/9. In the 2010s, the party became more moderate and changed its attitude towards the
European Union. In parliamentary and presidential elections, it usually supports the candidates of the
Civic Platform or the
Polish People's Party. In 2019, LPR declared its accession to the
European Coalition.
Roman Giertych is an active politician in the ruling coalition, and has stated successfully ran for the
Sejm in the
2023 Polish parliamentary election as part of the
Civic Coalition. == Ideology ==