Palikot's Movement

Your Movement (, which can also be translated as ''Your Move'', TR) was a social liberal, neoliberal, populist and anti-clerical political party in Poland. The party was founded by Janusz Palikot, a former Civic Platform MP, in October 2010 as Palikot's Movement (, RP). The party was classified as a right-wing, centre-right, centrist, centre-left, or a left-wing party in the context of Polish politics, one which was "struggling with its political identity and finding it difficult to decide whether it was really a left-wing party at all or more of an economically and socially liberal centrist grouping."

Palikot's Movement wanted to end religious education in state schools, end state subsidies of churches, legalize abortion on demand, lower the voting age to 16, give out free condoms, allow same-sex marriages, switch to the mixed-member proportional representation system, reform the Social Security Agency, abolish the Senate, legalize cannabis, raise the retirement age, replace free university programs with tuition-based paid ones, and implement flat taxes. The party adopted its revised name and programme on 6 October 2013.

History

In July 2010, Janusz Palikot—then still a member of Civic Platform (PO)—suggested that the late President Lech Kaczyński was himself to blame for the Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash in Smolensk, Russia. In the aftermath of the resulting controversy, Palikot announced plans to create his own social movement. On 2 October, he organized the "Modern Poland" congress in Warsaw, attended by several thousand. At the congress, Palikot announced his 15-point program.
On 6 October, Palikot resigned from PO, along with Kazimierz Kutz.

On 9 January 2011, Palikot gave his MP ID card to the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity to be auctioned off.

On 1 June 2011, Palikot formally registered his movement as a political party called Palikot Movement (RP).

In the October 2011 parliamentary election, the party received 10 percent of the vote and won 40 seats in the Sejm, making it the third party in the chamber behind Civic Platform and Law and Justice (PiS), one of the best debut performances for a party since the end of communism. After the election, one of the MPs of Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Sławomir Kopyciński, decided to leave his party and join Palikot Movement.

Anna Grodzka, the first ever transgender MP in European history, was elected from the party lists in 2011. Also, Robert Biedroń became the first openly gay MP in Polish political history. One parliamentarian, Roman Kotliński, is a former priest of the Catholic Church.

On 8 March 2012, Łukasz Gibała, head of the Krakow structures of the governing PO, joined Palikot Movement, becoming the 43rd MP of the party. His transfer was somewhat significant in that he is the nephew of the Minister of Justice Jarosław Gowin.

On 3 February 2013, Palikot Movement and Racja PL started collaboration with Social Democracy of Poland, Labour United and Union of the Left to form an electoral alliance named Europa Plus to contest the upcoming European Parliament elections. The project was led by Marek Siwiec, Aleksander Kwasniewski and Janusz Palikot.

On 6 May 2013, Palikot Movement registered its first local party committee abroad, which had been formed by Poles residing in Brussels, Belgium.

On 25 May 2014, in the 2014 European election, Europa Plus received 3.6% of the vote, below the 5% electoral threshold, thus failed to elect any MEPs. On 29 May 2014, Europa Plus was disbanded.

On 6 October 2013, the party was renamed and refounded as Your Movement (TR).

In July 2015, TR and the SLD, Labour United (UP) and The Greens (PZ) formed the United Left (ZL) electoral alliance to contest the upcoming parliamentary election.

In the 2015 Polish parliamentary election (held on 25 October 2015), the United Left list was led by Your Movement's Barbara Nowacka and received only 7.6% of the vote, below the 8% threshold, leaving TR without parliamentary representation.

In the 2019 Polish parliamentary election, the party stood under the banner of The Left.

The party disbanded in January 2023.

Ideology

Sources described Palikot Movement as liberal, anti-clerical, and pro-European. Media variously described Palikot Movement as economically liberal,libertarian, liberal, anti-clerical, and populist. The British ''Financial Times'' newspaper described the economic views of the Palikot Movement membership as heterogenous, ranging from libertarianism to social democracy. According to the political scientist Aleks Szczerbiak, the party struggled with its political identity and was an economically and socially liberal, centrist party rather than a left-wing one. Political scientist Michał Syska argued that ultimately Your Movement was "related to Thatcherism rather than social democracy in its economic postulates", considering the left-wing label inadequate.

Palikot's Movement was described as a "liberal populist party whose progressive policies on some social and cultural issues are combined with a commitment to neoliberal economic reform." It had a neoliberal economic programme - its most famous economic proposal was introducing flat tax rates instead of the progressive taxation that Poland had at the time. The party also argued that students should pay for their studies and wished to make university tuition paid instead of free. The party supported "liquidating any barriers to business activity", abolition of tax and social security privileges for groups like the farmers, raising the employment age and restricting retirement privileges. It also proposed a creation of a "probusiness parliamentary commission".

Socially, the party wanted to prohibit religion lessons in schools, eliminate religious symbols in public buildings, and introduce sexual education in schools. It was described as "vehemently anti-clerical". Additionally, it also supported abortion on demand, legalizing soft drugs, and introduction of same-sex civil unions. It also spoke for centralization of Polish administration and government, as it sought to reduce the number of Sejm seats, eliminate the Senate, and decrease the number of councilors of the local government, while liquidating some branches of local government completely. It also proposed a ban on the participation of the clergy in state ceremonies.

Your Movement was described as social-liberal, anti-clerical and pro-European. Anti-clericalism was considered the core belief of the party - it was also described as anti-Catholic and antireligious. The party placed an emphasis upon supporting LGBT rights. At the same time, the party's commitment to social progressivism was called into question - the leader of the party, Janusz Palikot, suggested that the Polish feminist activist and MP Wanda Nowicka "perhaps desired to be raped" when she refused to step down from her post. Its ideology was considered a type of liberal populism that combined economic liberalism with social progressivism, which often isolated the party from left-wing parties such as the social-democratic SLD.

Election results

Sejm

European Parliament

See also

* Civil libertarianism
* Drug liberalization
* LGBT rights
* LGBT rights in Poland
* Polish Initiative
* Secular humanism
* Secular liberalism

References

External links

Your Movement official website

Your Movement caucus in the Sejm
{{Polish political parties

2010 establishments in Poland
Anti-clerical parties
Centrist parties in Europe
Neoliberalism
LGBTQ political advocacy groups in Poland
Liberal parties in Poland
Political parties established in 2010
Populist parties
Progressive parties
Secularism in Poland
Secularist organizations
Social liberal parties
Pro-European political parties in Poland