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Declan Ganley visited[8][9]Poland on Friday 9 January 2009[10] to discuss terms for the formation of the Poland branch of Libertas with representatives from Forward Poland (NP), PSL Piast and Prawica Rzeczypospolitej (PR).[10] Ganley insisted that the Poland Libertas party used the word "Libertas" in the title but the party politicians were concerned that the non-Polish name would deter voters.[10] The name "Forward Poland – Libertas" (Naprzód Polsko – Libertas) was suggested as a compromise name[10] should NP decide to ally with Libertas.
On 2 February 2009[6][11] a press conference was given[7] in which the head of the Referendum Committee, former LPR MP Daniel Pawłowiec, was named as head[1][2][7] of Libertas Poland (Libertas Polska, LP), and the Referendum Committee offices at Aleje Ujazdowskie 22/3, 00-478 Warsaw were named as the headquarters of Libertas Poland.[7]
Although the party had been announced, it did not exist under that name at that point: registering a political party in Poland is a lengthy process.[5] Instead, Pawlowiec's Lewica i Demokraci was renamed to Libertas Polska, the new name being registered on 24 February 2009[5]
Position
On 11 February 2009, Libertas Poland held a press conference concerning the emergency meeting of the European Council.[14] In that press conference, Libertas Poland demanded that the Polish government should reduce VAT following the UK example,[14] propose an EU joint energy policy,[14] and reopen the labor markets of Germany and Austria to Polish workers.[14]
Affiliates
Libertas attempted to get other parties to affiliate (run candidates under a common list) to it. Libertas's search for affiliates was assisted by Roman Giertych[15] and Wojciech Wierzejski,[16] with Wierzejski resigning from the leadership of LPR to devote his time to the unification of the Polish patriotic, nationalist, conservative and Christian right under a Libertas list.[17]
Parties that did affiliate to Libertas
The parties that affiliated with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu are as follows:
Forward Poland and PSL Piast
Forward Poland (Naprzód Polsko, NP) originally rejected[18] cooperation with Libertas because they felt that Libertas did not reflect their desire for a more independent Poland.[18]PSL Piast (a.k.a. Stronnictwo "Piast") also initially rejected[18][19] cooperation with Libertas for similar reasons to Forward Poland[18] and because the party did not have a Polish name.[19] Instead, the two parties planned to run their own combined list (Naprzód Polsko – Piast) in the 2009 elections.[20]
But the two parties eventually decided to affiliate to Libertas[21] and candidates from the two parties appeared on the Libertas lists.[22] The decision to affiliate was not unanimously welcomed within the two parties.[15]
There was a controversy involving allegations of forged signatures in constituency number 11[23] and the Naprzód Polsko – Piast list did field candidates in that constituency.[20]
Partia Regionów
Partia Regionów considered running under a Libertas list.[19] Partia Regionów's president, Bolesław Borysiuk, negotiated cooperation with Libertas Polska[24] and he announced in PR's inaugural Congress that PR's candidates were likely to run under a Libertas list alongside Libertas Polska,[25] and this did in fact occur.[22]
League of Polish Families
As of 9 March 2009, League of Polish Families (LPR) were still considering whether to run under a Libertas list or form their own, either by themselves or with UPR, or Prawica Rzeczypospolitej.[26] But by 19 March, Ganley was distancing Libertas from LPR.[27] Nevertheless, Libertas and LPR were still in ongoing discussions on Friday 27 March 2009[28] about running under a common list. By 21 April 2009, LPR had agreed to affiliate to Libertas[21] and their candidates did run under the Libertas list[22][29] instead of their own list[30] in the 2009 European Parliament elections.
The parties that considered affiliating with Libertas Poland and the parent organization Libertas.eu, but did not, are as follows:
Prawica Rzeczypospolitej
Prawica Rzeczypospolitej considered Libertas to have Eurofederalist aspects and rejected Libertas accordingly.[35] No Prawica Rzeczypospolitej candidates appeared on the Libertas list in the 2009 European Parliament elections.[22]
Law and Justice
Law and Justice (PiS) personnel[3] were mentioned by Pawłowiec as possible Libertas candidates, although no names were given.[3] Libertas tried to get PiS to affiliate to it[36] but it did not do so,[37] and instead ran a full list of its own,[38] although one of its members (Slawomir Ligecki[39]) did defect to Libertas.
Libertas Poland started work on/before 20 March 2009 on collecting sufficient signatures to field candidates,[3][4] although the number and names of those candidates was not specified.[3][4] By 2 May 2008, a Libertas Election Committee (Komitet Wyborczy Libertas) had been formed and its list consisted of 130[31] candidates, later falling to 128.[22] The breakdown was as follows:[31]
Party/Movement of which candidates were current/former members
Acronym
Number of candidates on Libertas list
Number of first-placed candidates on Libertas list
Member parties are members of Libertas.eu. Members of member parties are automatically members of Libertas.eu unless they choose otherwise.
2
Affiliated parties are not members of Libertas.eu but are otherwise associated. Members of affiliated parties are not members of Libertas.eu unless they choose to join as individuals.
3
Parties presenting as Libertas.eu affiliates/members but not sanctioned by Libertas.eu when presentation commenced.
