1995 Polish presidential election

Background

Wałęsa's inauguration

Lech Wałęsa was elected and sworn in as President in December 1990, succeeding Wojciech Jaruzelski and leading to the ultimate end of communist rule in Poland. Soon after his inauguration, Wałęsa's presently primary rival Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki resigned and was followed by Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, a liberal and economist relatively loyal to Wałęsa. Regardless of the cabinet changes, Bielecki's time as Prime Minister would largely follow the course set by his predecessor.

1991 parliamentary election

The 1991 Polish parliamentary election saw the Democratic Union (UD) become the largest party, later supplanted by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) after Aleksander Hall's Conservatives split off from UD. After the downfall of Jan Olszewski's cabinet, and Hanna Suchocka's cabinet which succeeded it, new elections were called.

1993 parliamentary election

The 1993 Polish parliamentary election saw SLD become the largest party, winning a plurality with 171 seats — 37.2% of the 460-seat Sejm — while receiving only 20.4% of the vote. SLD governed in a coalition with the Polish People's Party.

Approval rating of Wałęsa

Main article: Opinion polling on the Lech Wałęsa presidency

Wałęsa maintained an overwhelmingly negative approval rating throughout the second half of his term, with his approval becoming positive only during a period of increased polarization before the second turn of the 1995 presidential election.

Candidate selection

Registered candidates

Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland

During SdRP's Congress on 13 May, Kwaśniewski secured his party's endorsement for president with 296 out of 300 votes. Some delegates believed Józef Oleksy should become the candidate instead. A poll conducted in December 1994 suggested 71% of potential SLD voters supported Kwaśniewski as the party's candidate, 7% supported Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz and 16% supported Oleksy.

Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms

Lech Wałęsa was endorsed by the Bloc. Besides his own party, Wałęsa received the endorsement of other parties: a section of the ZChN endorsed him on 18 September, later joined by the rest of the party (though it didn't revoke its endorsement of their original candidate, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz) on 29 October.

Freedom Union

During the 2nd Congress of the Freedom Union, three candidates decided to enter the party's candidate selection process: Jacek Kuroń, Janusz Onyszkiewicz and Hanna Suchocka. Suchocka, despite being the highest-ranking of the former three candidates, came last in the first round. The second round of voting saw Kuroń defeat Onyszkiewicz by a slight margin of 11 votes, and the former Minister of Labour became the party's official candidate for president. A poll conducted in December 1994 suggested 53% of potential UW voters supported Kuroń as the party's candidate, 15% supported Leszek Balcerowicz and 25% supported Suchocka.

Movement for the Republic and Centre Agreement

With variously successful attempts of uniting the extraparliamentary right, several possible candidates were presented to lead it in the presidential election, most prominently of those affiliated with the Centre Agreement or its splinters, Lech Kaczyński, Jan Olszewski or Adam Strzembosz. On 27 March, Strzembosz declared his intentions to run for president, gaining the support of conventionally right-wing parties around him - the Centre Agreement, Christian-Peasant Party and Conservative Coalition, as well as the more centrist Conservative Party of Aleksander Hall. Strzembosz, alongside other activists of the right including Jan Olszewski, attempted to legitimise his candidacy at the Convent of St. Catherine. After its collapse in July, Jan Olszewski started an individual presidential campaign under his party, the Movement for the Republic, A poll conducted in December 1994 suggested 13% of potential voters for the extraparliamentary right supported Olszewski as the party's candidate, 11% supported Kaczyński and 6% supported Strzembosz. Another 9% supported right-libertarian Janusz Korwin-Mikke (UPR) and 8% supported Alicja Grześkowiak (PC).

Polish People's Party

Pawlak was selected as the party's candidate. He was challenged most prominently by Józef Zych at the party's convention, however, Zych resigned from seeking the candidacy. A poll conducted in December 1994 suggested 68% of potential PSL voters supported Pawlak as the party's candidate, 1% supported Janusz Piechociński and 9% supported Zych.

Convent of St. Catherine

In November 1994, the Convent of St. Catherine was organised by , coordinating several extraparliamentary center to right-wing parties, like the Christian-Democratic Labour Party (ChDSP), Confederation of Independent Poland, Party of Christian Democrats (PChD), Peasants' Agreement, , Movement for the Republic, Third Republic Movement, Party of Polish Democracy, , Christian National Union, Polish Union (ZP), Solidarity or Rural Solidarity. The Convent's purpose was to serve as a discussion forum for the marginal extraparliamentary parties trying to coalesce into a political force able to cross the 5% threshold and enter the Sejm after the last election's wipeout result for the fragmented parties. In the Summer of 1995, the Convent agreed to hold meetings to select a joint presidential candidate for that year's election. Out of the many candidates that expressed interest in becoming the candidate, the quickest to withdraw was Jan Parys, soon after , , and Adam Strzembosz stopped being contenders. The remaining candidates, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Leszek Moczulski and Jan Olszewski, ultimately entered a dispute over the results a ballot held to elect the Convent's candidate, as on the 19th of July, Gronkiewicz-Waltz's, followed by Olszewski's supporters both claimed victory for their candidates. Due to the inability of the Convent to decide on a candidate, it was ultimately disbanded and all three of the remaining candidates ran their own presidential campaigns, though Moczulski ultimately withdrew and endorsed Wałęsa. Gronkiewicz-Waltz later tried to court the endorsements of right-wing candidates like Olszewski and Lech Kaczyński. A group of ZChN activists, including and , titled "Inicjatywa 44", broke away from the Gronkiewicz-Waltz campaign to support Wałęsa instead, being accepted into his campaign staff on 18 September. On 29 October, the rest of ZChN, beyond the Inicjatywa 44 group, endorsed Lech Wałęsa without withdrawing their support for Gronkiewicz-Waltz. Ultiamtely, she remained with only the concrete endorsements of the SLCh, ZP, PK, KK and ChDSP.

Withdrawn candidates

Rejected candidates

The following candidates registered to run, but failed to cross the threshold of 100,000 signatures required to run in the election:

• Bolesław Tejkowski (Chairman of the )

Campaign

The two favorites throughout the course of the campaign were the leader of the post-communist SLD Aleksander Kwaśniewski and incumbent President Lech Wałęsa. Kwaśniewski ran a campaign of change and blamed the economic problems in Poland on the post-Solidarity right. His campaign slogan was "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość). Political opponents challenged his candidacy, and produced evidence to show that he had lied about his education in registration documents and public presentations. There was also some mystery over his graduation from university. A law court confirmed that Kwaśniewski had lied about his record, but did not penalize him for it, judging the information irrelevant to the election result. Meanwhile, Wałęsa was a very unpopular President and some opinion polls even showed that he might not make it into the second round. He was challenged by other post-Solidarity politicians of all sides of the political spectrum ranging from liberal former Minister of Labour and Social Policy Jacek Kuroń to conservative former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski. Rather than focusing on his presidency, he focused on his personal image as an everyday man turned international hero that was created for him while he was chairman of Solidarity. His campaign slogan was "There are many candidates but there is only one Lech Wałęsa" (Kandydatów jest wielu – Lech Wałęsa tylko jeden).

Opinion polls

Graphical summary

First round

Second round

Results

Kwaśniewski won with 52% of the vote in the run-off. 65% of voters voted in the first round and 68% in the second round.

Electorate demographics