The first president of Poland,
Gabriel Narutowicz, was
sworn in as president of the
Second Polish Republic on 11 December 1922. He was elected by the
National Assembly (the
Sejm and the
Senate) under the terms of the 1921
March Constitution. Narutowicz
was assassinated on 16 December 1922. Previously
Józef Piłsudski had been "Chief of State" (
Naczelnik Państwa) under the provisional
Small Constitution of 1919. In 1926 Piłsudski staged the "
May Coup", overthrew President
Stanisław Wojciechowski and had the National Assembly elect a new one,
Ignacy Mościcki, thus establishing the "
Sanation regime". Before Piłsudski's death, parliament passed a more
authoritarian 1935
April Constitution of Poland (not in accord with the amendment procedures of the 1921 March Constitution). Mościcki continued as president until he resigned in 1939 in the aftermath of the German
invasion of Poland. Mościcki and his
government went into exile in
Romania, where Mościcki was interned. In
Angers,
France,
Władysław Raczkiewicz, at the time the speaker of the Senate, assumed the presidency after Mościcki's resignation on 29 September 1939. Following the
fall of France, the president and the
Polish government-in-exile were evacuated to
London,
United Kingdom. The transfer from Mościcki to Raczkiewicz was in accordance with Article 24 of the 1935 April Constitution. Raczkiewicz was followed by a succession of presidents in exile, of whom the last one was
Ryszard Kaczorowski. In 1945–54,
Poland became a part of
Soviet-controlled
central-eastern Europe.
Bolesław Bierut assumed the reins of government and in July 1945 was internationally recognised as the head of state. The Senate was abolished in 1946 by the
Polish people's referendum. When the Sejm passed the
Small Constitution of 1947, based in part on the 1921 March Constitution, Bierut was elected president by that body. He served until the
Constitution of the Polish People's Republic of 1952 eliminated the office of the president, replacing it with a collective leadership called the
Council of State (). Following the 1989 amendments to the constitution which restored the presidency, general
Wojciech Jaruzelski, the existing head of state, took office. In Poland's first
direct presidential election,
Lech Wałęsa won and was sworn in on 22 December 1990. The office of the president was preserved in the
Constitution of Poland passed in 1997; the constitution now provides the requirements for, the duties of and the authority of the office. The topic of creation the presidency role as a single-person position was meant to safeguard slow, gentle political change to keep the interests of the ruling party. By March 1989, a compromise regarding the creation of the institution of the presidency was reached between the government and the opposition. In return for a constitutionally defined presidency with various competences, the ruling party agreed to relinquish its position as managing organ within the state. The presidency would be created along with the restoration of a freely elected upper house, the Senate. The president would be elected by a joint session of the lower house (Sejm) and the Senate. By this way, representatives of the opposition, sitting in the Senate, would be involved in the political process of electing the president. The Small constitution of October 17, 1992 created a parliamentarisation of the political system and while the presidency remained in the active model, it was deprived of far-reaching governing powers. In recent years, newly elected presidents have renounced formal ties with their political party before taking office. ==Election==