League And Self-Defense

League and Self-Defense ( pl, Liga i Samoobrona, LiS — also means

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

in Polish) was the proposed name for a new Polish political grouping which was to arise from an alliance or merger between the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, SRP) is a nationalist, populist, and agrarian political party and trade union in Poland. Its platform combines left-wing populist economic policies with religious c ...

(SRP) and the

national conservative National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity. National conservatives usually combine nationalism with conservative stances promoting traditional cultural values, f ...

Christian right The Christian right, or the religious 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 t ...

League of Polish Families (LPR) in July 2007.
/sup> However, the merger failed to materialise, and LiS didn't go anywhere beyond the stage of a proposal. The decision for the synthesis of the two parties arose following a crisis within Poland's ruling three party coalition, of the dominant

Law and Justice Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...

(PiS) party, and junior partners SRP and LPR. On 9 July, SORP leader,

Andrzej Lepper Andrzej Zbigniew Lepper (; 13 June 1954 – 5 August 2011) was a Polish politician, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, and the leader of Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland political party. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Mi ...

, was dismissed from his position as Minister for Agriculture following a secret investigation by the

Central Anticorruption Bureau The Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA, pl, Centralne Biuro Antykorupcyjne) is a division of the Polish government, reporting to the Prime Minister of Poland, responsible for addressing corruption in Poland. Located in Warsaw, the CBA has been f ...

(CBA) which attempted to link him and his department to corruptive practices. Lepper protested his innocence and claimed to have been the victim of a politically motivated 'sting' operation, initiated by PM Kaczynski and PiS. He demanded that a parliamentary inquiry be conducted to investigate the legality and motivation of the CBA operation mounted against him. Lepper's stance drew him support from his own SORP party and the LPR. On 16 July 2007, a merger of the two parties was announced at a press conference conducted by Lepper and his LPR counterpart,

Roman Giertych Roman Jacek Giertych (; born 27 February 1971 in Śrem, Poland) is a Polish politician and lawyer; he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education until August 2007. He was a member of the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish parliament) f ...

. The nature of this new 'LiS' was not made clear, and the leaders could not give any specifics as to whether LiS would take the form of a newly unified party or simply an electoral alliance of two autonomous parties. It was indicated however, that the platform of this new alliance would be mainly eurosceptic and anti-

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...

. By early September it was clear that LiS would not arise. The membership of the two parties had not been properly consulted as to their support for this idea, and the merits of the proposition had not been discussed. Many of the members of both groups saw little common ground between the two parties. Furthermore, opinion polls did not necessarily reflect that there was a significant advantage to an alliance. LPR and SRP therefore decided to start independently of each other at the early 21 October legislative elections. LPR joined forces with

Real Politics Union The Real Politics Union ( pl, Unia Polityki Realnej, UPR) is a national conservative and economically liberal political party in Poland. In the past it was right-libertarian and classical liberal. Popular support and funding UPR was founded in ...

and

Right of the Republic The Right Wing of the Republic ( pl, Prawica Rzeczypospolitej) is a political party in Poland founded by former ''Marshal of the Sejm'' Marek Jurek on 20 April 2007 after he had left Law and Justice on 16 April 2007, when the Sejm failed to pass ...

to form a new alliance called

League of the Right of the Republic The League of the Right of the Republic ( pl, Liga Prawicy Rzeczypospolitej, LPR) was a short-lived Polish political alliance between the national conservative Christian right League of Polish Families (LPR), the conservative- libertarian Real P ...

(''Liga Prawicy Rzeczypospolitej''). Conservative parties in Poland Catholic political parties Defunct political party alliances in Poland Nationalist parties in Poland National Democracy {{poland-party-stub