The Christian National Union (, ZChN)Maher (2004), p. 3458 was a

Christian-democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well a ...

and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

political party in Poland This article lists current political parties in Poland, as well as former parties dating back as far as 1918. Since 1989, Poland has had a multi-party system, with numerous competing Political party, political parties. Individual parties normall ...

. Established on 15 September 1989, the party traced its tradition to the

Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...

movement (both the trade union and the

Solidarity Citizens' Committee The Solidarity Citizens' Committee (''Komitet Obywatelski "Solidarność"'', KO "S"), also known as Citizens' Electoral Committee (''Obywatelski Komitet Wyborczy'') and previously named the Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa (''Komitet Obywatel ...

), as well as pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

National Democracy National Democracy may refer to: * National democratic state, a state formation conceived by the Soviet concept of national democracy * National Democracy (Czech Republic) * National Democracy (Italy) * National Democracy (Philippines) * National De ...

and Polish Christian Democratic Party. The party adhered to the

Christian right The Christian right are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation ...

, advocating

social conservatism Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on Tradition#In political and religious discourse, traditional social structures over Cultural pluralism, social pluralism. Social conservatives ...

. From its foundation until 1994, the party was led by

Wiesław Chrzanowski Wiesław Marian Chrzanowski (, 20 December 1923 – 29 April 2012) was a Polish politician and lawyer; from 1991 to 1993 he was Marshal of the Sejm.Posłowie I kadencji 1991 - 1993 (Delegates of 1st Session, 1991-1993), Sejm of Poland/ref> He ...

, who was

Marshal of the Sejm The Marshal of the Sejm (, ) is the speaker (chair) of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament. The office traces its origins to the 15th century. In modern Poland, the full title is Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (). ...

in 1991–1993.

History

The ZChN was part of the Alliance for Poland, along with the

Centre Agreement The Centre Agreement (, PC) was a Christian-democratic political party in Poland. It was established in 1990 and had its roots in the Solidarity trade union and its political arm, the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Its main leader was Jarosła ...

, and participated in all the governments from 1989 to 1993. In the 1991 parliamentary election the party obtained 8.7% of the votes. In the subsequent 1993 parliamentary election the ZChN, running under formed a broader electoral list and won 6.4% of the votes, falling short of the 8% electoral threshold for coalitions. In 1996, the party was a founding member of the centre-right

Solidarity Electoral Action Solidarity Electoral Action (, AWS) was a coalition of political parties in Poland, active from 1996 to 2001. AWS was the political arm of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity trade union, whose leader Lech Wałęsa (also an AWS member ...

. The coalition won the 1997 parliamentary election with 33.8% of the vote. ZChN was thus returned to the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

and took part to the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

led by

Jerzy Buzek Jerzy Karol Buzek (; born 3 July 1940) is a Polish politician and former Member of the European Parliament from Poland. He has served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001, since being elected to the European Parliament in 2004, he serv ...

from 1997 to 2001. In January 2001, when the Solidarity Electoral Action was transformed into a federation, the ZChN was one of its four member parties, along with the

Social Movement A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or Political movement, political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to re ...

, the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement and the Conservative People's Party.Maher (2004), p. 3459 However, the coalition failed to win any seats in the 2001 parliamentary election, when it was reduced to 5.6% of the vote, due to several splits and the emergence of rival parties in the Solidarity tradition, namely the

Civic Platform The Civic Platform (, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a Centre-right politics, centre-right liberal conservative political party in Poland. Since ...

and the

Law and Justice Law and Justice ( , PiS) is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative List of political parties in Poland, political party in Poland. The party is a member of European Conservatives and Refo ...

. The ZChN continued as a mass membership organisation for a while, with 10,000 members in 2004. In 2007, most ZChN politicians joined

League of Polish Families The League of Polish Families ( Polish: ''Liga Polskich Rodzin,'' , LPR) is a social conservative political party in Poland, with many far-right elements in the past. The party's original ideology was that of the National Democracy movement whic ...

, but several of its members had already joined Law and Justice, a Christian-conservative party formed in 2001 by

Jarosław Kaczyński Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician. He co-founded the Law and Justice (PiS) party in 2001 with his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński, and has served as its leader since 2003. He served as Prime Minister of Pola ...

and

Lech Kaczyński Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010 in an air crash. The aircraft carrying ...

from the ashes of the

(that was later part of the Polish Christian Democratic Agreement). The ZChN was finally dissolved in 2010. Today both Law and Justice and the National Movement claim to be successors of the ZChN. The former has most of the support of ZChN's previous members, however the latter has adopted most of its policies and declares itself the modern day version of National Democracy.

Party presidents

(1989–1994) *

Ryszard Czarnecki Richard Henry Czarnecki (, born 25 January 1963 pol. Ryszard Henryk Czarnecki) is a Polish politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Poland. He is a member of the Law and Justice, part of the European Conservatives an ...

(1994–1996) * Marian Piłka (1996–2000) *

Stanisław Zając Stanisław Zając (, 1 May 1949 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish lawyer and politician. He was a member of Sejm 1991–1993 and Sejm 1997–2001. On 25 September 2005 he was elected a member of the Sejm again, getting 25,225 votes in 22 Kro ...

(2000–2002) *

Jerzy Kropiwnicki Jerzy Janusz Kropiwnicki (born 5 July 1945 in Częstochowa) is a Polish right-wing politician, member of Law and Justice (Poland), Law and Justice party. He was leader of small party Christian-National Union (Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Nar ...

(2002–2006) * Jacek Szczot (2006–2007) * Marian Papis (2007–2010)

Electoral results

Sejm

Senate

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control 1989 establishments in Poland 2010 disestablishments in Poland Catholic political parties Christian democratic parties in Europe Conservative parties in Poland Defunct political parties in Poland Libertas.eu National conservative parties National Democracy Nationalist parties in Poland Polish nationalist parties Political parties disestablished in 2010 Political parties established in 1989 Right-wing parties in Europe