The Confederation Liberty and Independence (Polish: Konfederacja Wolność i Niepodległość), frequently shortened to just Confederation (Konfederacja), is a far-right political alliance in Poland. It was initially founded in 2018 as a political coalition for the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland, although it was later expanded into a political party in order to circumvent the 8% vote threshold for coalitions to enter the national parliament. It won 11 seats in the Sejm after the 2019 Polish parliamentary election. Its candidate for the 2020 Polish presidential election was Krzysztof Bosak, who placed fourth among eleven candidates.
Two political parties, KORWiN and National Movement, announced in late 2018 that they had decided to run together in the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland.[3][4] In early 2019, Grzegorz Braun's organization and Piotr Krzysztof Liroy-Marzec's party joined the coalition.[5]Kaja Godek, an ultraconservative activist, announced that she would join the list.[6] The coalition was initially dubbed the Pro-Polish Coalition. By late February 2019, it was changed to Konfederacja Korwin Braun Liroy Narodowcy.[7][8] In March 2019, an application was submitted to register the party under that name,[9] and the Federation for the Republic of Poland soon joined the alliance, including some representatives.[10][11][12] Its name was changed again, this time to Confederation.[13] In April the Party of Drivers joined the coalition, which soon afterward elected Marek Jakubiak as its chairman.[14][15] The Confederation placed fourth in the 2019 European Parliament election, winning 4.55% of the popular vote, although it did not reach the electoral threshold.[16] After the election, Braun applied for the registration of the Confederation of the Polish Crown.[17]
The coalition was registered on 25 July 2019 under the name Confederation Liberty and Independence.[18] Godek left the coalition soon after.[19] Shortly before the 2019 Polish parliamentary election, a schism occurred in the coalition, with many representatives joining the coalition while some of them also left.[20][21] The coalition ended up winning 6.81% of the popular vote and won 11 seats in the Sejm.[22][23] Most of the support the party received was in southeast and northern parts of Poland.[24] Around 20% of all young voters aged under-30 supported the grouping, about two-thirds of its voters were male, and more than three-fifths lived in smaller towns and rural areas. This has been highlighted as a significant change from previous right-wing alliances involving Korwin-Mikke where the base of support was almost exclusively young males.[25] In November 2019, they presented nine candidates that took part in the 2019–20 Confederation presidential primary.[26] The winner of the presidential primary was Krzysztof Bosak, who became the coalition candidate for the 2020 Polish presidential election.[27] During the first round of the election, Bosak received 1,317,380 votes or 6.78%, coming fourth among eleven candidates.[28]
In 2022, serious internal splits emerged as a result of Janusz Korwin-Mikke's pro-Russian and Ukrainophobic stances in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, causing several members to renounce their KORWiN memberships, albeit remaining within the coalition.[29] Ahead of the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, they were considered possible kingmakers. Bosak, one of Confederation's leaders, said: "Confederation has no intention of prolonging PiS's power or facilitating Tusk's return to power. The majority of our voters do not want this."[30] Korwin-Mikke, a former member of the European Parliament who is running for the party from the Warsaw region in 2023, has a history of sexist statements about women.[30] He said: "I am against voting rights for women. This is biology. A woman at the age of 55, when estrogen stops working, reaches the age when she can finally vote."[31] Ryszard Zajączkowski, a university professor and one of the coalition's candidates, said that Poles were subjected to what he described as genocide "at the hands of Jews working together with communists" after World War II,[32] and said that communism is worse than fascism. He said: "Compared to which the Auschwitz camp could be called a holiday camp."[30] In October 2023, Korwin-Mikke was suspended from the party.[33]
On April 21, 2024, in the second round of the presidential elections in Bełchatów, Patryk Marjan [pl], a member of New Hope, was elected, becoming the party's first city president.[34]
Ideology and position
The Confederation is a right-wing orientated political alliance,[35][36] and it is positioned on the far right on the political spectrum.[37] It is also considered to be a part of the radical right,[38] although some[specify] have disputed that it does not contain all elements of the radical right.[39]
The party has supported weapons, financial aid and diplomatic support for Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, but argued that these should be conditioned on contracts for postwar rebuilding being guaranteed to Polish companies.[59]
Platform
Confederation's platform includes the following promises, as well as others:
4 party members were candidates for Piotr Liroy-Marzec's Efficient political party electoral committee in Constituency № 35 (Olsztyn) whilst the rest of the party, including its entire parliamentary club, were on Law and Justice's electoral lists.
Used Federation for the Republic of Poland's electoral lists, which in turn were in agreement with the Right Wing of the Republic, and fielded candidates in the Kraków constituencies.
Despite being loosely affiliated with the Polish Coalition, they fielded only 1 candidate in Kraków from their electoral lists, whereas 2 other candidates used Confederation's electoral lists.
Vice-chair of the party Paweł Połanecki was a candidate for Piotr Liroy-Marzec's Efficient political party electoral committee in the Kielce constituency, as no.2 on the list behind Piotr Liroy-Marzec himself.
Boros, Tamas; Freitas, Maria; Skrzypek, Ania (2020). State of Populism in Europe: 2020. Brussels, Belgium: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. p. 133. ISBN978-2930769394.
Kocyba, Piotra (2020). "The Right in the Streets: The Past and Present of the Polish March of Independence". Public Eye. Somerville, Massachusetts: Political Research Associates: 28. ISSN0275-9322.
Kocyba, Piotr; Łukianow, Małgorzata (9 July 2020). "The Right in the Streets". Political Research Associates. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
^Munteanu, Adriana (June 2020). Facebook – An Instrument for RightWing Populist Propaganda?. Amsterdam, Netherlands, the: University of Amsterdam. p. 31.
