Kukiz'15
LeaderPaweł Kukiz
FoundedMay 2015
Headquartersul. Słowackiego 17
49-330 Łosiów
Youth wingKukiz'15 Youth Club
Ideology
Political positionCentre-right to right-wing
National affiliationUnited Right (since 2021)
European affiliationEuropean Alliance for Freedom and Democracy
Sejm
3 / 460
Senate
0 / 100
European Parliament
0 / 51
Regional assemblies
0 / 552
Website
k15.org.pl

Kukiz'15 is a right-wing populist political party in Poland led by Paweł Kukiz.

It was formed in 2015 as a loose movement that registered itself as an association in 2016 and later as a political party in 2020. Initially, it was connected with far-right parties such as the National Movement, although since 2016 it has moderated its political outlook. During the 2018 local elections, it coordinated with the socially conservative Right Wing of the Republic and in 2019 it joined the Polish Coalition. Due to its eurosceptic stances, its membership was terminated from the coalition, and in May 2021 it announced its support for the ruling United Right coalition.

Political positions

Kukiz'15 was initially connected with the National Movement party,[1][2] although Kukiz'15 itself was not characterized as far right but rather national-conservative,[3] conservative-liberal,[4] and anti-establishment.[5][3] After 2016, they ceased operations with far-right organizations and politicians.[6][7][8] Since its inception, it has lacked programmatic coherence and thus has been described as a big tent party.[9][10][11] In its program, they have expressed support for direct democracy.[12][13] Its leader and the party has expressed eurosceptic stances,[14] and has been described as a right-wing populist,[15][16][17] and conservative party,[18] that sits on the centre-right[1][2] and right wing on the political spectrum.[19]

The key postulates upon foundation of the party were:

History

The movement was founded after Kukiz stood in the 2015 presidential election, winning 21% of the vote and coming in third during the election's first round. Kukiz's primary issue during the election was the replacement of Poland's proportional representation electoral system with single member constituencies,[24][25] which was the subject of a referendum in September 2015.

The movement was particularly popular among young people: Kukiz won 42% among voters aged 18 to 29 in the 2015 presidential election.[26]

In the 2015 parliamentary election, Kukiz'15 cooperated with the far-right National Movement, which gained 5 of Kukiz' 42 parliamentary seats.[1][27]

In April 2016, the National Movement leadership decided to end its collaboration with Kukiz'15 and instructed its MPs to leave the Kukiz'15 parliamentary club, but only one MP followed party instructions.[28] These ones, who stayed in Kukiz'15, together with a few other Kukiz' MPs, formed National Democracy (Endecja).[29]

There was a Sejm scandal in April 2016. Kornel Morawiecki of Kukiz'15 left his Sejm member card in the voting device when he felt sick and went out from the debating hall and then Małgorzata Zwiercan voted for him. After this he left Kukiz'15 and launched a new party Free and Solidary (Wolni i Solidarni) along with two other Kukiz'15 MPs.

In February 2017, three Kukiz'15 MPs left the group and became a parliamentary representation of the association "Republicans" (Republikanie).

In February 2018, Paweł Kukiz apologised for having introduced the nationalists into the Sejm.[8]

In May 2018, Kukiz'15 has coordinated with the social conservative Right Wing of the Republic in local elections.[30]

In August 2019 Kukiz'15 joined the Polish People's Party (PSL) to set up a joint list for the 2019 parliamentary election named Polish Coalition. This alliance helped both parties overcome the 5%-threshold and Kukiz kept 6 MPs in the Sejm. Because of that alliance, the Real Politics Union ended cooperation with Kukiz'15.

However, the ideological differences between the Pro-European PSL and the Eurosceptic Kukiz MPs led to a quick fallout. In November 2020, a PiS motion was put to a vote on the support for the Polish government in the EU budget negotiations (in which Poland and Hungary used their veto). 5 of the 6 Kukiz MPs voted in support. This led the PSL and Kukiz'15 to part ways.[31]

On 20 June 2021, the reactivation of the congress of the Republicans, which were instrumental in the creation of Kukiz'15 in 2015, took place. Karol Rabenda announced that some Agreement members will join the Republican association and restructure it into a party, and that the newly formed party will subsequently join the governing coalition as a full member. In response, the Law and Justice chairman Jarosław Kaczyński made a speech praising the new reformed party.[32]

After Jarosław Gowin's scepticism with the "Polish Deal" proposal (an economic recovery plan for countering the COVID-19 recession in Poland) and media law changes that would inevitably force the American company Discovery, Inc. to sell its TVN Group, Gowin was publicly removed from his position as deputy prime minister, resulting in realignment of the composition of the coalition.[33] As result, Adam Bielan's "Agreement rebels" new party joined the coalition as replacements, and the remaining Kukiz '15 MP's led by Paweł Kukiz declared their support for the coalition, except Stanisław Tyszka.[34]

Deputies

All deputies were elected on United Right list

Election results

Sejm

Election year Leader Number of
votes		 Percentage of
vote		 Number of
overall seats won		 +/– Government
2015 Paweł Kukiz 1,339,094 8.81 (#3)
42 / 460
 New Opposition
2019 1,578,523 8.6 (#4)
6 / 460
 Decrease 36 Opposition (2019–2021)
Support (2021–2022)
Opposition (2022–2023)
As part of Polish Coalition, which won 30 seats in total.
2023 7,640,854 35.4 (#1)
3 / 460
 Decrease 3 Opposition
As part of the United Right coalition, which won 194 seats in total.

Regional assemblies

Election year  % of
vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/–
2018 5.7 (#5)
0 / 552
 Steady

European Parliament

Election year # of
vote		  % of
vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/–
2019 503,564 3.69 (#5)
0 / 52
 Steady

Presidential

Election year Candidate 1st round 2nd round
# of overall votes  % of overall vote # of overall votes  % of overall vote
2020 Supported Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz 459,365 2.4 (#5)

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Tom Lansford, ed. (2017). Political Handbook of the World 2016-2017. SAGE Publications. p. 1219. ISBN 978-1-5063-2715-0.
  2. 1 2 Leruth, Benjamin; Startin, Nicholas; Usherwood, Simon (2017). The Routledge Handbook of Euroscepticism. Routledge. ISBN 9781315463995.
  3. 1 2 Sawicka, Joanna; Skibicki, Juliusz; Szacki, Wojciech (3 November 2015). "Kto jest kim u Kukiza". polityka.pl. Polityka. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "Ludzie od Kukiza w Sejmie: Kim są, czego chcą, kto może ich przejąć". 3 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Nardelli, Alberto (22 October 2015). "Polish elections 2015: a guide to the parties, polls and electoral system". The Guardian.
  6. ↑ "Ruch Narodowy kończy współpracę z Kukiz'15". 23 April 2016. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  7. ↑ "Kornel Morawiecki odchodzi z Kukiz'15". 14 April 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Wyborcza.pl".
  9. ↑ Napieralski, Bartosz (2017). Political Catholicism and Euroscepticism: The Deviant Case of Poland in Comparative Perspective. Routledge. p. 115. ISBN 9781315281674.
  10. ↑ "The Cult of Kukiz | The Krakow Post". The Krakow Post. 7 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "Poland's rock star-politician: What happened to Paweł Kukiz?". 11 May 2016.
  12. ↑ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Poland". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  13. ↑ "Kukiz: Rejestracja koła Kukiz'15-Demokracja Bezpośrednia w poniedziałek". 31 January 2021.
  14. ↑ "Kukiz: Nie chcę Polski w Unii, która jest popychadłem".
  15. ↑ Kasprowicz, Dominika; Hess, Agnieszka (2017-06-15). "Populizm w Polsce – między demagogią i demofilią". Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne (2): 201–214. doi:10.14746/ssp.2017.2.10. hdl:10593/22600. ISSN 1731-7517.
  16. ↑ European Economic and Social Committee.; European Citizen Action Service. (2019). Societies outside metropolises: the role of civil society organisations in facing populism. LU: Publications Office. doi:10.2864/975141. ISBN 9789283044765.
  17. ↑ University of West Bohemia; Naxera, Vladimír; Glied, Viktor; University of Pécs; Filipec, Ondřej; University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava; Kaczorowska, Małgorzata; University of Warsaw (2020). "To protect national sovereignty from the EU? The 2019 EP elections and populist parties in V4 countries". UNISCI Journal. 18 (54): 71–106. doi:10.31439/UNISCI-98. hdl:11025/42608.
  18. ↑ Stetka, Vaclav; Surowiec, Paweł; Mazák, Jaromír (2019). "Facebook as an instrument of election campaigning and voters' engagement: Comparing Czechia and Poland". European Journal of Communication. 34 (2): 8. doi:10.1177/0267323118810884. ISSN 0267-3231. S2CID 149482174.
  19. ↑ Right-wing:
  20. ↑ "Kukiz: narodził się ruch, który przywróci państwo obywatelom". pikio.pl (in Polish). 2015-10-25. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  21. ↑ "official site". Archived from the original on 2016-07-12. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  22. ↑ "Nowa ordynacja wyborcza jeszcze w tej kadencji. PiS z Kukizem chcą zmienić sposób wybierania posłów". 14 October 2021. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  23. ↑ "Winnicki o zmianie konstytucji: powrót do klasycznego trójpodziału władzy".
  24. ↑ Aleks, Szczerbiak (15 May 2015). "What does Paweł Kukiz's election success mean for Polish politics?". London School of Economics. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  25. ↑ Wąsik, Zosia (6 May 2015). "Ex-rock star is third most popular candidate for Polish presidency". Financial Times. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  26. ↑ Moskwa, Wojciech (16 July 2015). "Rock Star's Campaign Burns Out in Boost to Polish Opposition". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  27. ↑ Radikale Nationalisten im polnischen Parlament Der Standard, October 27, 2015 (in German)
  28. ↑ "Narodowcy opuszczają klub Kukiza, ale czterech zostaje. "Jedność Ruchu Narodowego jest fikcją"". 23 April 2016.
  29. ↑ "Powstaje Stowarzyszenie "Endecja"". 19 May 2016.
  30. ↑ "Onet.pl".
  31. ↑ "Paweł Kukiz: Klub Koalicja Polska podziękował nam za współpracę. Kosiniak-Kamysz: Zbyt daleko idące różnice".
  32. ↑ "Powstała Partia Republikańska – nowa siła polityczna Adama Bielana. Na sali Jarosław Kaczyński". 20 June 2021. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  33. ↑ "Polish ruling coalition collapses amid media law protests – POLITICO". 10 August 2021.
  34. ↑ "PiS podpisało z Kukiz'15 umowę o współpracy programowej". 31 May 2021.
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