President in the Polish Parliamentary Democracy

Part of the package of the democratic changes accepted at the Polish Round Table in 1989 was the reintroduction of the presidency, abolished in 1952 by the Constitution of the communist era. Since then, Poland has had three presidents and four presidential elections. General Wojciech Jaruzelski ran unopposed in the only presidential elections by the National Assembly in July 1989. In 1990, the Constitution was amended to introduce presidential election by universal ballot. “Solidarity” leader Lech Walesa was elected for a five-year period (1990-1995). In 1995 he lost the elections to the then leader of the Alliance of Democratic Left Aleksander Kwasniewski, who in 2000 successfully ran for re-election. During this period, the position of the President of the Republic evolved. The new Constitution of 1997 defines the system of the Polish Republic as a parliamentarycabinet one but with broad prerogatives of the president. The actual position of the president depends not only on the norms of law but also on the political support he has in the society and on his relations with parliamentary parties. The Polish experience of the last ten years shows the possibility of a relatively strong presidency without the presidential control of the executive branch of government. It also argues against both extremes: presidentialism (the president being the chief executive or controlling the prime minister) and a weak, symbolic presidency