Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland
Self-Defence Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej (short or Self-Defence Self-Defence RP, German Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland) is a political party in Poland. From their opponents often referred to as populist, it is economically strong left pronounced; socio-political, it represents, however, mostly Catholic- conservative values .
Self-Defence was founded in 1992 by Andrzej Lepper, who led them also as party chairman until his death in 2011. They claimed for themselves, to defend the interests of Polish farmers and thereby entered into direct competition with the established Polish Peasant Party.
The party turned to foreign policy partly against NATO and the EU. Domestically, the Self-Defence bordered sharply by all liberal movements, followed by its own account a "third way" between capitalism and communism.
Self-Defence sat frequently in the past to extra-parliamentary, sometimes illegal actions. Several times roadblocks were erected to prevent the transport of agricultural products from the EU. In the Sejm, the Self-Defence called for increased subsidies for Polish agriculture and thus builds aware of the centrally planned economy of socialist Poland in the period from 1945 to 1989.
Previously rather insignificant, the Self-Defence won relatively large popularity with the approach of the Polish EU accession. In the parliamentary elections of 2001, it reached 10.2 % of the vote and placed so that in the Sejm, the third largest fraction. In 2005, the Self-Defence was a member of the Polish government coalition led by the PiS.
In the elections of 21 October 2007, in which the former Prime Minister Leszek Miller also (formerly SLD) took for the Self-Defence, it is no longer the party succeeded to collect in the Sejm. A planned electoral alliance with the national-conservative League of Polish Families had been discarded because of strong programmatic discrepancies.
At the 2011 general election the party came under the name of "Our House Poland - Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defense " and drove only 0.07 % a. Lepper, political driving force of the party, had a few weeks earlier hanged himself under mysterious circumstances in his office in Warsaw.
In February 2013, the Self-Defence concluded with the Belarusian Belaya Rus a cooperation agreement. The two organizations want to exchange experiences in the future, together hold press conferences and carry out joint studies.