Delegitimization of the Third Polish Republic, the building of party identity and discursive structures of possibilities

The objective of this paper is to analyze the factors responsible for the delegitimization process of the Third Polish Republic, in particular in the period from 2001 to 2005, when power was in the hands of the coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Polish People’s Party (PSL). The analysis applies the concept of discursive structures of possibilities which identifies which properties of the political context made the delegitimization efforts of the right wing credible. The opposite mechanisms applied, and delegitimization messages sent by the SLD are the object of interest here as well, as are the results of these activities, that is the ideas which Civic Platform (PO) used to build and legitimize their own identity before the 2005 parliamentary elections