The party was established in 2003 by activists of several social movements. Among its founding members were environmentalists, feminists, LGBT people and anti-war activists. The first political campaign of the emerging party concerned the Polish European Union membership referendum, the Greens campaigned for a "yes" vote.
Greens 2004 took part in the movement against the Iraq War in 2003 and participated in Equality Parades and other social protests in the time of "Fourth Republic" (2005–2007). Since 3 March 2013, the official name of the party is Partia Zieloni (The Greens), while Greens 2004 is a historical name and can still be used.
During the late 2000s and the early 2010s, the party cooperated with various socialist parties in the elections.
The party was represented in the Sejm between 2014 and 2015 by Anna Grodzka (she was elected as Palikot's Movement member in 2011). By the mid-2010s, the party lost many members (e. g. Marcelina Zawisza), who formed new party called Razem (Together).
Since 2018, the party began to cooperate with Civic Platform and Modern parties. In 2019, as part of Civic Coalition, it won three seats in Sejm. These representatives became members of Civic Coalition parliamentary group. On 8 March 2023, Klaudia Jachira, previously independent representative within Civic Platform, joined The Greens.[6]
In the 2006 local elections, the Greens structured themselves and decided on the formula for the start of elections (because the party's national authorities rejected the invitation to the alliance of the Left and Democrats). The independent list of the Greens in Warsaw received 11 210 votes (1.68%) and 7th place out of 14. Less than 1% of support was obtained in Wrocław and Gdańsk by the local committees co-created by the Greens with Young Socialists. In other cities, people associated with the party were candidates from local, mainly non-party lists or the Left and Democrats coalition.
In the 2010 presidential election, the Greens supported Grzegorz Napieralski based on the analysis of the programs of the most important candidates. The SLD candidate obtained the highest score in the Green Index ranking: 78 on a scale from -200 to +200 points. In the second round, the party members encouraged to vote, but they did not support any of the candidates, pointing to their conservatism and economic neoliberalism.
Polish local elections of 2010
In the 2010 local elections, members of the Greens ran in most cases from the lists of Democratic Left Alliance. In these elections, the Greens won five seats in local councils and regional parliaments.
Polish parliamentary election of 2011
In the 2011 parliamentary election, representatives of the party again found themselves on the lists of the Democratic Left Alliance, but they did not obtain any seats in the Sejm. The Green candidates themselves gained 23 421 votes, which gave 0.16% of the votes. The only one of the Greens was their chairman Dariusz Szwed opening the list in the Chrzanów constituency, in which he obtained 3 842 votes.
European Parliament election of 2014
In the 2014 European Parliament election, the Greens formed their own Election Committee of the Greens. The representatives of the Women's Party, the Polish Socialist Party and Young Socialists have announced the start of the Green Committee's lists. The Committee registered lists in five districts. The Committee of the Greens obtained 22 221 votes (0.32%) in the elections, taking the 10th place (ahead of, among others, the Direct Democracy committee, whose lists were registered in six districts).
Polish local elections of 2014
In the 2014 local elections, the Greens issued their own letters to the city council in Warsaw and Wrocław, in Warsaw, issuing Joanna Erbel as their own candidate for the city's presidency, and in Wrocław supporting the SLD candidate. In Kraków, together with trade unions and city movements, they co-founded the Kraków Against the Olympic Committee. In Opole, the current councilor of the Greens, Beata Kubica (elected in 2010 from the SLD list) ran for the city council from the list of German Minorities. In the Lubuskie voivodeship, the Greens together with the Social Justice Movement, trade unions and civic movements, co-founded the Nowy Ład Committee in the elections to the regional council. The Greens also issued a dozen or so candidates in the One-National Electoral Circumscriptions in Poland.
As a result of the elections, the independent lists of the Green Party in Warsaw received 2.55% of votes to the city council. A similar result (2.48%) was received by the candidate for the mayor of the city, Joanna Erbel. The Wrocław Green list received 1.97% of the votes to the city council. In Kraków, the Kraków Against the Olympic Committee, co-created by the Greens, received 6.7% of the votes, which did not translate into mandates, with Tomasz Leśniak receiving 4.84% of the votes in the elections for the city president. The Electoral Committee New Deal, co-created by the Greens, received 0.62% of support in the elections to the Lubusz Regional Assembly (it was the 10th result from among 11 committees). No Green candidate for a councilor in the single-member district has obtained a seat.
Polish presidential election of 2015
In the 2015 presidential election, the candidate for the party was the deputy Anna Grodzka, who, however, did not collect the required number of 100 000 signatures.
Polish parliamentary election of 2015
Greens joined the Zjednoczona Lewica (United Left) electoral alliance for the 2015 parliamentary election in July 2015. In the election the alliance received 7.6% of the vote, below the 8% electoral threshold leaving the alliance with no parliamentary representation. It was officially dissolved in February 2016.
Polish local elections of 2018
In the 2018 local elections, the Greens, without any electoral alliance, managed to obtain the highest ever result in their party history of 1.15% of the votes,[7] with their highest result as a percentage in Lubusz voivodeship (2.62%), and the highest local Gmina result being in Gmina Żary (10.0%).
This concludes that the Greens achieved better overall results in Western Poland areas which are near to the borders of Germany.
Sejm and European Parliament elections of 2019
On 6 November 2018, at a press conference, the Greens officially announced preparations for the 2019 elections both at the national and European level. Announced at the end of July 2019, the party will participate in the 2019 Polish parliamentary election as part of the Civic Coalition.[8]
Principles and policies
The framework for Green policies, called The Green Manifesto, was adopted by the founding congress of the party on 6 and 7 September 2003. The Green Manifesto outlined the principles of green politics in seven areas: social justice and solidarity, civil society and reclaiming the state for citizens, environmental protection and sustainable development, gender equality, respect for national, cultural and religious diversity, protecting minority rights, and non-violent conflict resolution.[9]
At the 4th Congress in April 2011, the Greens 2004 adopted elaborated policy documents concerning the principles of social policy, education policy, and health care policy.[10]
Current policies
The current official policies approved during the party's XI Congress:[11]
"Protection of Earth resources is our obligation"
The total departure from obtaining energy from oil, coal and other fossil fuels and obtaining it in at least 50% from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Legal admissibility of euthanasia for terminally ill people, who will express their will to end their lives.
"Good quality food based on sustainable development"
Moving away from industrial animal husbandry, moving to agriculture without chemical poisons by 2040 and not allowing GMO.
Support for organic farming as well as local and direct sale of agricultural products.
Protection of the durability of family farms and protection of social rights of farmers and farmers as well as employees and employees in the farm.
Education and raising public awareness of issues related to food consumption and its impact on human health - especially diseases such as obesity, diabetes, allergies.
A more just system of subsidies for all agriculture and increased subsidies for sustainable and local agriculture.
Policies formulated in previous years
In the past, the Greens in their manifestos have declared, among others:
sustainable economic, social and ecological development;
energy model based on energy efficiency and prosumer renewable energy;
urban policy based on public services, active housing policy, development of accessible public transport, support for universal and accessible education, health and culture, respect for greenery and ecosystems;
sustainable development of rural areas, support for organic farming, total elimination of GMOs.
The Greens, due to their pacifist stance, also oppose the restoration of the death penalty and the introduction of a flat tax, as well as the construction of elements of US anti-missile installations in Poland (the so-called anti-missile shield).
Cooperating entities
Organizations which are affiliated or managed with and by the Greens.
The "Green Area" Foundation; promotes sustainable, sustainable economic, social and ecological development. It supports financially and substantively activities in line with the ideology and program of the Greens, as well as political parties and non-governmental organizations.
Association "Acute Green"; involved in the promotion of human rights, sustainable development, democracy, environmental protection. It is the party's youth wing and it focuses on mainly young pro-environmental activists.
The journal "Green News"; discusses issues related to ecology, sustainable development, democracy, human rights, minority rights, presenting alternatives to the dominant socio-economic system.
Other notable members of the party include: Kinga Dunin (writer, feminist, editor of Krytyka Polityczna), Radosław Gawlik (environmental activist, former deputy minister of the environment), Zbigniew Marek Hass, Tomasz Kitliński (philosopher, LGBT rights activist), Wojciech Koronkiewicz (poet, journalist, film director), Izabela Kowalczyk (art critic), Bartłomiej Kozek, Aleksandra Kretkowska, Bartosz Lech (former co-chair of the FYEG), Paweł Leszkowicz (art curator and art historian), Jerzy Masłowski, Magdalena Masny, Adam Ostolski (sociologist, member of Krytyka Polityczna), Monika Paca, Kazimiera Szczuka (writer, feminist, hosted the Polish version of The Weakest Link), Olga Tokarczuk (writer), Ludwik Tomiałojć (ornithologist), Ewa Sufin-Jacquemart (Consul of Poland in Luxembourg 2007–2011).
Other persons who used to be or still are affiliated with the Green party
Congress accepted the "Green Manifesto", which is the basic policy document of the party.
1st Congress, 12–14 November 2004, Gdańsk
II Congress, 24–26 February 2006, Katowice
III Congress, 1–2 March 2008, Warsaw
Congress accepted the amendments to the statute, replacing the terms "co-chairman" (male) and "co-chairman" (female) with their shorter versions. The Greens also adopted several positions on foreign policy, including on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and opposition to the anti-missile shields.
IV Congress, 16–18 April 2010, Warsaw
Congress adopted four program resolutions: on electoral law, social policy priorities, health policy and education policy.
V Congress (program), 2–3 September 2011, Warsaw
Congress adopted five program resolutions concerning: green economy, protection of employees' rights, energy and climate policy, secular state and cultural policy.
VI Congress, 2–4 December 2011, Warsaw
Congress chose the new party authorities.
VII Congress, 2–3 March 2013, Warsaw
Congress chose the new party authorities, and adopted two program resolutions regarding European policy and policies to support renewable energy sources. The name of the party from "Zieloni 2004" (Greens 2004) to "Partia Zieloni" (Green Party) was also changed.
VIII Congress, 12–13 July 2014, Warsaw
Congress again chose Agnieszka Grzybek and Adam Ostolski as party chairmen, and also adopted resolutions regarding local government elections, presidential and parliamentary elections.
IX Congress, 30–31 May 2015, Warsaw
Congress discussed program matters, and elected new party authorities.
X Congress, 20–21 February 2016, Warsaw
Congress chose the new party authorities and accepted Green Manifesto 2.0.
XI Congress (program), 30 September – 1 October 2017, Warsaw
Congress accepted the Green Message program.
XII Congress, 17–18 February 2018, Warsaw
Congress chose the party's authorities and decided to make an independent start in elections to regional assemblies in local elections in 2018, and also adopted a resolution on the need to establish a broad coalition in the elections to the European Parliament of 2019.
"Manipulacje Greenpeace". wiadomosci.dziennik.pl (in Polish). 12 October 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
Dąbrowski, Jakub; Demenko, Anna (2014). Censorship in Polish Art After 1989: Art, Law, Politics. Mosaic Press. p. 374. ISBN9781771614658. The leftwing Zieloni 2004 party were attempting to organise a support campaign for the artist at the time – yet their initiative, while important, enjoyed little public response (see p.319).
Elżbieta Korolczuk (11 October 2021). "Populizm, nierówności i uwiąd obywatelstwa socjalnego" (in Polish). Francuski ekonomista porównał dane pochodzące z Francji, Wielkiej Brytanii i USA od lat 20. do 2016 roku, które wskazują, że we wszystkich trzech krajach elektorat partii lewicowych (takich jak Partia Pracy czy Zieloni) znacząco się zmienił. [The French economist compared data from France, the UK and the US from the 1920s to 2016, which shows that in all three countries, the electorate of left-wing parties (such as Labour and the Greens) has changed significantly.]
Agnieszka Kwiatkowska (12 June 2019). "Institutionalisation without voters: the Green Party in Poland in comparative perspective". Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft. 13 (2): 290. doi:10.1007/S12286-019-00424-6. ISSN1865-2646. Affiliation to the European Green Party increased the external institutionalisation of the Green Party in Poland without acquiring a large number of voters. Since the party foundation, thanks to endorsements from the key EGP politicians, the Greens has attracted attention of media and other political parties far exceeding their electoral support. Their radical left-wing program also provided an incentive for more ideologically blurred parties to attract new groups of voters.
italic font – electoral alliances and/or popular fronts *: Zbigniew Ajchler **: Piotr Adamowicz et al., ***: Marek Biernacki ****: not currently registered as a party
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