The National Party (, SN) was a political party in Poland which was reactivated in 1989 in Warsaw by Jan Ostoja Matłachowski, Leon Mirecki, Maciej Giertych, Bogusław Jeznach, Bogusław Rybicki and others as the successor to the pre-war National Party. Its first chairman was Stefan Jarzębski. The re-activated SN was officially registered on 21 August 1990.
The party adhered to the tradition of endecja, mainly the ideas of Roman Dmowski. The party opposed Poland's membership in the EU and NATO. In the Polish parliamentary election in 1991, the party won 74,082 votes equating to 0,66%. In 1992, the party underwent a split, as one faction led by Bogusław Rybicki formed the Stronnictwo Narodowe “Ojczyzna” (National Party “Fatherland”). Most of its members eventually entered the League of Polish Families (LPR) and dissolved the National Party in 2001.
History Origins The party was formed over a year after the Polish Round Table Agreement, the 1989 Polish parliamentary election and subsequent downfall of the Communist government in Poland. The origins of the 'reactivated' National Party date back to 8 July 1989, when 83-year-old Jan Ostoja Matłachowski, a political activist of the interwar National Party and an associate of Roman Dmowski, founded "Convention of Seniors" (), which then formed the National Party and claimed to be the direct successor of the interwar-era party of the same name.
The first declaration by the party stated: "On 8 July 1989, in Warsaw, at 6 Piekarska Street, at the meeting of the Seniors of the Polish National Movement [...] Jan Matłachowski and the Convention of Seniors of the Polish National Movement decided to resume the open activity of the party in the country [...]". The Presidium of the Convention consisted of: Jan Matłachowski (chairman), Adam Krajewski (secretary) and Tadeusz Krzyszowski." The new party's claim of being the direct continuation of the interwar National Party was supported by Władysław Matus, who was the oldest surviving member of the National Party in 1991 (he was born in 1888). Matus wrote that the new party had legal continuity through the principle of "co-optation of authorities" included in the 1935 statute of the interwar party.
Some members as well as opponents of the National Party later disputed whether the reactivation and the supposed legal continuity was legitimate. Tomasz Kostyła and Krzysztof Kawęcki, later members of the party, argued that the new National Party was founded by national communist faction of the Polish United Workers' Party, which made the reactivated SN a post-communist movement. This claim later received some substantation after it was revealed that some of the founding members of the party, such as Bogusław Rybicki and Edward Mastej, were former communists. In April 1992, Rybicki admitted that Matłachowski was pressured into reactivating the National Party by a group of Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth (PRON) members. Matłachowski eventually agreed to reform the party after the PRON group that contacted him agreed to his condition of the new party having the exact same name as the interwar one.
Endorsement of Matus as well as the fact that the new party was founded by elderly former interwar activists gave it an aura of legitimacy, attracting hitherto dispersed nationalists. The SN grew, and in November it already had 34 members - mostly from Warsaw and Kraków (the initiators), but also Łódź, Gdańsk, Gliwice and seven other locations. After several meetings of the convention, a national conference of the SN was held on 9 September 1992. The first local unit was to be the Regional Board in Łódź (president Jerzy Sasin, plus Jerzy Sójka, Stefan Kwaśniak, Wanda Chrósciel, Tomasz Kociubiński, Mieczysław Trzcinka), but it did not inaugurate its activities until 7 November. On 14 October, the Warsaw ZO was established (president Arkadiusz Góral, plus Jerzy Syrek, Reginald Choliński).
On 9 November 1991, the founder of the party, Jan Ostoja Matłachowski, passed away. His death was heavily publicized and media also discussed his 'reactivation' of the National Party that he went through in the last months of his life. This led to the rapid growth of the party. With a couple hundred members by the end of the 1989, the party would then have 1500 members in 1990, and reach 4000 members in its prime year of 1991. A week after Matłachowski's death, the party decided to hold another founding convention that would elect new members. It invited multiple newspapers and journalists to record the event.
Shortly after his death, another meeting of national circles from all over the country was held in Warsaw at All Saints' Church, resulting in the establishment of the National Party "Szczerbiec". Representatives of this formation announced that they were taking over the traditions of the pre-war national movement, in particular the 1927 anthem of the Camp of Great Poland, the symbol of the Chrobry sword with the white eagle in the crown and with the cross, and were resuming the publication of the press organ "Voice of the Nation ().
A national founding convention was called for 18 November. It was attended by 120 delegates and 60 supporters and gathered the representatives of 23 editorial offices and agencies. Invited guests also included, in addition to distinguished nationalists such as Józef Kossecki and Przemysław Górny, Father Henryk Czepułkowski, Father Tadeusz Gliński, Tadeusz Maciński and a liaison officer with the émigré SN, Leon Mirecki, also Bolesław Tejkowski of the nationalist party Polish National Community (, PWN), Krzysztof Borkowski of the Real Politics Union and Edward Kowalczyk of the Alliance of Democrats. The SN statute of 1935, with some amendments, was adopted as the basis of the party's activities. According to it, supreme authority belonged to the Supreme Council, meeting every six months; it was composed of delegates of the circles, presidents of the District Boards, members of the General Board and the General Committee. Bronisław Ekert was appointed chairman of the Main Board, Professor Stefan Jarzębski was appointed chairman of the Main Board (former minister in the government of the People's Republic of Poland), and Adam Krajewski was appointed chairman of the Main Committee.
Beginning and the 1990-1991 elections Despite the party's ambitions to lead the nationalist movement in Poland, this ambition was soon undermined by many splits and competing parties. On 24 August 1990, a party named "National Democracy" () announced its establishment, which was founded by former members of the National Party - Zbigniew Jacniacki, Edward Mastej, Alina Krajewska and Ryszard Filipski. The activists of the party also departed in other directions, including defections to the Congress of the Polish Right (, predecessor to Congress of the New Right). While 1990 was a successful year for the party, splits and defections that took place were a sign of deep divisions within the party that would escalate ever after 1991.
First serious challenge to the party proved to be the 1990 Polish presidential election, with party members being deeply divided over which candidate should be endorsed. The National Party was hostile towards right-leaning, anti-communist candidates such as Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Lech Wałęsa, and warned its supporters against voting for them. Ultimately, the party authorities voted to endorse Roman Bartoszcze, the candidate of the post-communist Polish People's Party (PSL). Back then, PSL was a left-wing, agrarian socialist party identified with the fallen communist regime. This decision was met with resistance, as some factions within the party found it unthinkable to support a left-leaning, post-communist candidate; National Party was thus accused of being a post-communist, left-wing party itself. A small group within the party also broke the ranks to campaign for Stanisław Tymiński, an ultra-populist anti-establishment candidate that presented himself as a businessman "out of nowhere".
Right-wing parts of the party interpreted the decision of the party leadership to support a post-communist candidate as a sign of the party being dominated by former communists. This caused harsh infighting and division within the party, which grew increasingly divided between the "blue" and "pink" factions. The blue camp was staunchly right-wing and focused on closely following the legacy of the interwar movement, while supporting liberal capitalism and anti-communism. The pink faction, in contrast, was left-wing, vehemently anti-capitalist and socialist and either accepted or was sympathetic towards Communist Poland; the pink camp was dedicated solely to economic matters and ignored social issues, and the members of the factions openly mocked the Polish right for attacking immigrants and Jews instead of focusing on the hardship of the working class. Prior to this point, both factions were largely isolated from each other, with the pink faction being relegated to writing and promoting the party's economic program (with the party being quite left-wing economically as the result), while the blue faction was responsible for social issues. However, after the 1990 presidential elections, both factions started openly fighting with each other.
The internal division led to radical changes in the party leadership. On 11 November 1991, the hitherto leader of the party, Jarzębski, was replaced with Józef Więcławek associated with the émigré National Party. Then on 28 April 1991, Leon Mirecki became the honorary president of the party, and Maciej Giertych was elected chairman of the party's supreme council, with some members being subsequently replaced as well. In August 1991, Krzysztof Kawęcki, associated with the "orthodox right", joined the party as well. However, changes in leadership did not prevent new secessions; the entire party's district in Piła defected to Christian National Union when the party's leadership did not condemn Rybicki's (the leader of the pink faction) support for Tymiński in the 1990 election.
The party was further endangered by the formation of a rival National Democratic Party (, SND) in 1991, formed on the initiative of the émigré party. The majority of the National Party's members in Kraków, including the local chairman Stanisław Szuro, switched to the new party in May 1991. The local branches of SN in Ostrołęka and Łomża were also sympathetic towards the newly formed party, and defections to the National Democratic Partz also took place in regions such as Zamojszczyzna. This fracturing of the national movement was also reflected in the party's newspaper National Review (), where the party leadership removed editor-in-chief Cz. Mazur in April 1991 for his sympathies towards the SND. Further splits took place, as on 9 April 1991, another party known as the Democratic-National Party () was formed, as well as the National Democracy Political Party (). The party leadership negotiated unification with the far-right SN "Szczerbiec" and then SND, but both talks failed.