Directory
Encyclopedia

NodeWorks
                              ENCYCLOPEDIA

Link Checker
Home
Encyclopedia : C : CI : CIT :

Citizens Platform

  

Citizens Platform

Citizens Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) is a Polish conservative-liberal political party, modelled after the two main American parties. It is the first (and as of 2001 the only) Polish party which has chosen candidates for Parliament using a pre-election process.

Founders

It was founded in 2001 by Andrzej Olechowski, Maciej Plazynski, and Donald Tusk.

Political program

Citizens Platform proposes:

  • Flat tax rates: 15% income tax and 15% VAT.
  • Higher education reform, with equal rights for private and public universities.
  • More cash spending should be done by local government, less by central government.
  • Privatization and demonopolization.
  • Direct elections of mayors and governors.
  • Private health care.
  • Majoritarian parliamentary elections.
  • Labor law reform.
  • Narrowing privileges of trade unions.
  • Teaching economy in all schools.
  • Giving the National Bank of Poland full control over monetary policy.
  • Allowing private landlording.
  • Lowering the number of MP in the Sejm from 460 to 230, and depriving them of parliamentary immunity.

    Leaders

    • Donald Tusk - party chairman
    • Jan Rokita - parliamentary caucus chairman
    • Zyta Gilowska - chief economist

    The party 58 deputies in the Sejm. PO is now leading all the polls with 26% to 30% support (PO had 12% in 2001 elections). The rise in popularity is in part the effect of Jan Maria Rokita's participation in the Sejm's Special Inquiry Commission (The Lew Rywin Affair), where he managed to uncover many irregularities in the post-communist SLD run cabinet.

    Members of Polish Parliament (Sejm)

    MP, constituency

    The Citizens Platform electoral committee consisted of several political parties and groups (Platforma Obywatelska RP being the largest)

    As part of the European People's Party, Citizens Platform was the leader in the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, with 25% of the votes. This gives her 15 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament.

    See also: Politics of Poland, List of political parties in Poland


    		•
    NodeWorks boosts web surfing!
    Page Returned in 1.385 seconds - HTML Compressed 71.6%

    This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available
    under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
     GNU Free Documentation License
    © 2008 Chamas Enterprises Inc.