Civic Platform (Polish: Platforma Obywatelska), abbreviated to PO, is a centre-right political party in Poland. It has been the major coalition partner in Poland's government since the 2007 general election, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland and Bronisław Komorowski as President. PO is the largest party in the Sejm, with 207 seats, and the Senate, with 63 seats.
The party was formed in 2001 as a split from Solidarity Electoral Action, under the leadership of Andrzej Olechowski and Maciej Płażyński, with Donald Tusk of the Freedom Union. In the 2001 election, PO emerged as the largest opposition party, behind the ruling centre-left party Democratic Left Alliance. PO remained the second-largest party at the 2005 election, but this time behind the national conservative party Law and Justice (PiS). In 2007, Civic Platform overtook PiS, now established as the two dominant parties, and formed a government in coalition with the Polish People's Party. After the Smolensk disaster, Bronisław Komorowski was elected the first President from PO.
Since its creation, the party has shown stronger electoral performances in the former (1815-1945) Prussian-German (recovered) territories of current Poland.
Civic Platform is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).
Read more about Civic Platform: History, Ideology, Notable Politicians
Famous quotes containing the words civic and/or platform:
“It is thus that the few rare lucid well-disposed people who have had to struggle on the earth find themselves at certain hours of the day or night in the depth of certain authentic and waking nightmare states, surrounded by the formidable suction, the formidable tentacular oppression of a kind of civic magic which will soon be seen appearing openly in social behavior.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“... a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself cannot stand upon it.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)