The Center Civic Alliance (), abbreviated as POC, was a

center-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

of several political parties that participated in the 1991 Polish parliamentary election. The Center Civic Alliance was chiefly organized by the

Centre Agreement The Centre Agreement (, PC) was a Christian-democratic political party in Poland. It was established in 1990 and had its roots in the Solidarity trade union and its political arm, the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Its main leader was Jarosła ...

, drawing in remnants of the

Solidarity Citizens' Committee The Solidarity Citizens' Committee (''Komitet Obywatelski "Solidarność"'', KO "S"), also known as Citizens' Electoral Committee (''Obywatelski Komitet Wyborczy'') and previously named the Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa (''Komitet Obywatel ...

s, independents, and

Christian right The Christian right are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation ...

parties, including the Polish Popular-Christian Forum "Patrimony". The alliance was created after its main component, the

, attempted to form a broad alliance supporting President

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...

. However, the alliance quickly fell out of favor with the president, failing to gain Wałęsa's approval. In its aftermath,

leader

Jarosław Kaczyński Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician. He co-founded the Law and Justice (PiS) party in 2001 with his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński, and has served as its leader since 2003. He served as Prime Minister of Pola ...

was subsequently fired from his position as Chief of the Presidential Chancellery. For the 1991 elections, the Center Civic Alliance supported a pro-

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

foreign policy, advocating membership into

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, faster

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

decommunization Decommunization in former communist states is the process of purging former communist high officials and eliminating communist symbols. It is sometimes referred to as political cleansing. Although the term has been occasionally used during t ...

, and greater economic reforms. In the election's highly fractious aftermath, the Center Civic Alliance garnered 8.7% of the vote, taking 44 seats in the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

. In the Senat, the Alliance took 9 seats. For the coalition building talks that followed, the Alliance selected

Jan Olszewski Jan Ferdynand Olszewski (; 20 August 1930 – 7 February 2019) was a Polish conservative lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Poland for five months between December 1991 and early June 1992 and later became a leading figure ...

to lead the organization into forming a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

, forging a coalition with the Peasants' Agreement, the Christian National Union and various independents. However, Olszewski's government proved to be deeply unstable, falling within half a year. By the 1993 election, the Center Civic Alliance had dissolved, due to its former

core suffering from numerous party defections and splits into new independent groups.

References

Conservative parties in Poland Defunct political party alliances in Poland Catholic political parties Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Political parties with year of establishment missing {{Poland-party-stub