Solidarity Electoral Action

Solidarity Electoral Action
Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność (Polish)
Leader
Founded8 June 1996 (1996-06-08)
Dissolved18 October 2001 (2001-10-18)
Preceded bySolidarity Citizens' Committee
Centre Civic Alliance
Solidarity lists
IdeologyChristian democracy
Conservatism
Anti-communism
Political positionCentre-right
ReligionCatholicism
Colours
  •   Red (official)
  •   Gray (customary)

Solidarity Electoral Action (Polish: Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność, AWS) was a coalition of political parties in Poland, active from 1996 to 2001. AWS was the political arm of the Solidarity trade union, whose leader Lech Wałęsa (also an AWS member), was President of Poland from 1990 to 1995, and the successor of the parties emerged from the fragmentation of the Solidarity Citizens' Committee.

The coalition was led by Marian Krzaklewski and Jerzy Buzek, who was Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001. Ideologically, it represented "an eclectic mix of socially conservative trade union-oriented corporatism, Christian Democracy, economically interventionist and liberal forms of Catholic nationalism and less overtly Church-inspired strands of liberal-conservatism"; its program was also described as a combination of "social conservatism and state interventionism".

Law and Justice and Civic Coalition, the two dominant Polish political parties of today, had their roots in AWS.