The German Minority Electoral Committee ( pl, Komitet Wyborczy Mniejszość Niemiecka, german: Wahlkomitee der Deutschen Minderheit) is an electoral committee in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, that represents the German minority. Since 2008, its representative has been

Ryszard Galla Ryszard Jerzy Galla (born 22 July 1956 in Wrocław) is a Polish politician of German heritage. Originally a member of the Opole Regional Assembly and briefly the Marshal of Opole Voivodeship in 2002, Galla was elected to the Sejm during the 200 ...

. It is not a registered

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

, but an organization by which Poland's political system gives political representation to national minorities. Candidates of the German minority are proposed by the Social-Cultural Association of Germans in Opolitian Silesia (''Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Niemców na Śląsku Opolskim'') and the Social-Cultural Association of Germans in Silesian Voivodeship (''Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Niemców Województwa Śląskiego'').

Programme

German Minority supports Polish integration with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

and the development of the region of

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. S ...

, and argues for laws supportive of

minority groups The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

(in particular, the

German minority in Poland The registered German minority in Poland at the 2011 national census consisted of 148,000 people, of whom 64,000 declared both German and Polish ethnicities and 45,000 solely German ethnicity.Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyni ...

National elections

As an organisation representing a national minority, it is not required to pass the

election threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

of 5% as standard political parties in Poland are. In 1993 there were two lists, one in the

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship, or Opole Province ( pl, województwo opolskie ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Upper Si ...

, one in the

Katowice Voivodeship Katowice Voivodeship () can refer to one of two political entities in Poland: Katowice Voivodeship (1), initially "Silesian-Dabrowa Voivodeship" ( pl, województwo śląsko-dąbrowskie), was a unit of administrative division and local government ...

. The Opole list also won one seat in the Senate. At the 2007 Parliamentary elections the candidate list to the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

(Polish parliament) got 8.81% of the votes in

, and only one seat in the

(8,193 votes). He had already won a seat in 2005 and had announced the rise from 2 to 3 seats as an electoral goal early in September, thanks to the personal votes of local mayors who were supposed to reinforce the list. The second former Sejm deputy,

Henryk Kroll Henryk Kroll (born January 20, 1949 in Gogolin) is a Polish politician, and the former leader of German minority in Poland. He was initially elected to Sejm (Polish Parliament) in 1991. In the Polish parliamentary elections of September 25, 2005 ...

(7,897 votes), lost his seat and announced his resignation from the chairmanship of the Social-Cultural Association of Germans in Silesian Opole, whose delegates are due to elect a new president early 2008. The 3 candidate list for the

Senate of Poland The Senate ( pl, Senat) is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europ ...

didn't succeed in winning a single seat. According to the bilingual weekly Schlesisches Wochenblatt, votes won by the German Minority list could have benefited the

Civic Platform Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk. It ...

(PO), for whom 6,000 to 8,000 ethnic Germans would have voted. In 2011 the list got 8.76% of valid votes in the Opole constituency, and more than 20% in 3

powiat A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powiat ...

( Krapkowice County,

Opole County __NOTOC__ Opole County ( pl, powiat opolski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reform ...

and

Strzelce County __NOTOC__ Strzelce County ( pl, powiat strzelecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government ...

) out of 12.

was reelected as the sole MP from the German Minority with 11,794 personal votes.Komitet Wyborczy Wyborców Mniejszość Niemiecka
National Electoral Commission

Regional elections

Local elections to the Opole Regional Assembly:

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:German Minority (Political Party) 1990 establishments in Poland Christian democratic parties in Poland Conservative parties in Poland German diaspora in Poland German political parties in Poland Political parties established in 1990 Regionalist parties Pro-European political parties in Poland Upper Silesia