Our Sejm. Poland celebrates the 550th anniversary of parliamentarism. Only is it worth it?

It all depends on the date from which we count the beginning of our parliamentarism. In 1993, the Polish authorities then recognized the year 1493, when King Jan Olbracht of the Jagiellon dynasty convened in Piotrków the first general Sejm – consisting of two chambers: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and three states of parliament : the king, deputies and senators.

Photo of Jan Matejko presenting the first Sejm summoned to Poland – in 1963 in Kiev (painter: Jan Matejko, photo for E. Suchodolska, M. Wrede (1998): Jan Matejki History of Civilization in Poland Wawel Royal Castle in Warsaw & # 39; / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)

The Polish authorities used another anniversary – the first parliament in Piotrków in 1468, in which the representatives took part, in the literal sense of the term. words – elected deputies in the regimes of the land. Today, when the members of both houses meet for a joint meeting, it will not be the general Sejm, but the National Assembly. Usually, it meets in the Sejm building. But not this time.

NATIONAL CONGRESS

The National Assembly, convened for the 550th anniversary of Polish parliamentarism, will be held in … a huge tent in the courtyard of the royal castle. The interconnected chambers of the Sejm and the Senate listen to President Andrzej Duda. This is part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the reconquest of Poland's independence and the 550th anniversary of Polish parliamentarianism. This ceremony will cost the Polish taxpayer a bit. Money and nerves

A tent at the Royal Castle in Warsaw prepared for the celebration of the 550th anniversary of Polish parliamentarism (photo: Sławomir Kamiñski / AG)

A one-day tent rental and work adapted to this level information "Rzeczpospolita", a trifle – a million zlotys. For this Christmas, references to the beginnings of Polish democracy may not seem very democratic, because the opposition considers its boycott. The reason? Powerful political conflict in Poland and the events of the past two years, including inconsistent with the regulations of the Diet vote the budget in the hall of the columns or repeat votes in the committees, when the result was not right after decision. Opposition opposition also attracts the salaries of his deputies when they are in charge of criticizing the government, and finally President Duda, who is accused by the opposition of violating the Constitution. Will the congregation, which lacks deputies and senators, always be called national?

This is an important issue because it is difficult to find a more democratic institution in Poland. This National Assembly – that is, the Sejm and Senate Chambers – voted, among other things, on the March Constitution in the Second Republic of Poland in 1921, and then on the 1997 Constitution. This Congregation accepted and accepted the oath of the newly elected president (and Narutowicz and Jaruzelski even chose). And this House can finally put the President before the State Court or decide – difficult to get the most votes – his permanent inability to occupy his post

Polish President Andrzej Duda during the briefing of Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on the tasks of Polish foreign policy (photo: Sławomir Kamiñski / AG)

The first Seym and three hundred years of noble democracy

550 years ago, during the convening of the Sejm, Kazimierz Jagielloński was in great demand. He had to pay two years after the end of the thirteen year war with the Teutonic Order to the soldiers who fought there. However, there was no money in the cash register. After several months of meeting – also at the level of the regional assemblies – they were affected. It was during this Sejm that established practice in the last years began – a separate House of Parliament was created in which the nobles, first elected to the Dietary Councils, were created. This means that the individual regions have started to choose their representatives for the general assembly. And this one passed laws, then called constitutions, which shaped the law and the system in Poland

When absolutism flourished in the west of Europe, Poland had the choice of free nobility and therefore social control. And more specifically – the control of the privileged layer, which constituted 10% of society at that time, because the noble could only become a noble.

During the reign of Kazimierz Jagielloński, meetings began almost every year *. And they were held regularly for 300 years, until the Seym in Grodno in 1793, the second partition of Poland was approved. And just a year earlier, the Great Diet, probably at the most recent moment in its history, has reformed the state and passed the May 3 Constitution. Freed from their fate with the help of an independent parliament, the Poles could not decide until 126 years later, after regaining their independence.

They decided, how they decided!

The burial of the former Tsar Vasil IV Szujski The Polish Zygmunt III Waza at the Seym in Warsaw on 29.10.1611 (painted by Jan Matejko, photo: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)

YESTERDAY AND TODAY'S OWN

Speaker: Please come down immediately! (The uproar arises: the deputies of right and left are ruffled by the tribune and the speaker, who continues to speak among the common tears so that his words are not heard completely.)
Marshal: I finish the meeting. (He leaves the presidential presidency). This was the end of a wild adventure at Sejm, one of the many years of the interwar period.

The history of the Second Polish Parliament is a material of sensational films, twists, strong motorcycles and even crude. A few hundred corrections and a row to each? Beat on the desk? Screaming, stamping? They are not inventions of the Third Republic, only the second. A trumpet and pipe after 1989 were not seen in parliament. And then, a hundred years ago, they were it. Although the Seym of the time did not dominate, as in the First Republic of Poland, ruthless on the measure and sensitive to the nobility of the nobility, the new deputies – in most – became worthy "heirs" of the lords of the sixteenth century. And the noble deputies, the highest social stratum, flung themselves with eggs, the quarrels in the meeting room ended their fights outside and returned to their homes, scorning the king's request to transfer the ceremony to the next day.

This was not better after 1918. Thus, March 7, 1921, the day of the adoption of the March Constitution – a great achievement of Polish democracy, a modern fundamental act, guaranteeing, among others, the electoral rights for women – the deputies of the left (!) have won and whistled for 13 hours, blocking the vote. Two years later, during the tenure of the right-wing government, after protests from workers and the left in Krakow against unemployment and creeping hyperinflation, the senate Saturnin Osiński called the right Seym "thugs and bloody hyenas" – describes Gazeta Wyborcza. The word "hyenas" was referring to the right-wing coalition – the Christian Union of National Unity, called by the opponents ChJeN ±

Jure of Lech Wa³êsa in front of the National Assembly (photo: Sławomir Sierzputowski / AG)

The whole picture was completed by the communists sitting in the Sejm, for example with the 39 "habit of calling" the fascist government of Piłsudski! " to which the Marshal also answered as a language (for example, he said "Rzeczpospolita is a big brothel, the constitution is a prostitute, and deputies are k *** y" ), and his faithful companions have strengthened their position with strength solutions. On March 27, 1928, General Felicjan Sławoj-Sk³adkowski, with his military subjects, broke the law and simply expelled from parliament "those skins of Communists who interfered with the command" .

It seems impossible that such a Sejm did something useful? And yet. The deputies had a difficult task – to administer the multi-ethnic systemic, systemic and economic society of the three old scores. And that – more or less – succeeds thanks to the constitution of March, the economic and administrative reforms recently adopted by the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic

The head of state Józef Piłsudski opens the first session of the Legislative Sejm of the Second Polish Republic on February 10, 1919 -Maryjskiego in Warsaw (photo for "wiatowid", 1929 / anonymous / Wikimedia Commons / public domain)

THIRD REPUBLIC OF RUSPOLITA, AND SEJM "MUCH LONGER"

This is no different in the subsequent terms of the Seym of the Third Polish Republic (the National Assembly was liquidated in 1935, returned in 1989) After the communist period, it was necessary to rewrite the constitution, adapt Polish legislation to the regulations of the European Union and regulate the principles of the economic system. Work on new laws has been accompanied by scandals no worse than those of the 20th century

In 2002, probably the most famous blockade of the Sejm took place. MP Gabriel Janowski, who objected to the privatization of state-owned enterprises by Treasury Minister Wiesław Kaczmarek, stood in the gallery and did not leave for 20 hours – until the end of the day. that the marshal's guard intervenes for the first time in history, she took it out of the room. Janowski considered this a "rape on himself", while the deputies saw that their friend had lasted 20 hours without going to the toilet

Clash Wiesława Kaczmarek and Gabriel Janowski on the privatization of Stoen, 2002 (photo: Wojciech OlkuÊnik) AG)

Andrzej Lepper took the model of Janowski, who, the same year, with a group of Samoobrona deputies, surrounded Minister Kaczmarek himself at the podium. The case ended with the exclusion of members of the Seym Self-Defense

. In the history of Polish parliamentarianism, Jerzy Pêkaa, the deputy of Self-Defense, occupies a place apart. In 2003, caught in a not very coordinated descent down the stairs of the Sejm, he claimed to be somebody else, namely, he killed a German in the corridors of the Sejm. However, he did not know much about this language on "Was" Nicht verstehen " so to save his skin, he had to quickly remove his parliamentary identity card – described" Warszawy's Creepy " . The same Bard, after an evening at the Parliament's restaurant, fought with his colleague Mieczysław Aszkiełowicz in front of the Sejm building. According to the "Super Express" case, the situation "resembled a bitch drinking".

Self-defense blocks the Speaker of Parliament (photo by Sławomir Kamiñski / AG) [19659003] Another deputy of this party, Stanisław ywiński, became in turn the protagonist of one of the most famous sexists in Polish parliamentarism – an assistant who accused Eugene Lewiński and Andrzej Lepper of having forced sexual services – to thank him. That she had a job

Already in free Poland, the words of the extraordinary Polish Republic were also mentioned, namely the greeting of the Third Reich. "Heil Hitler!" – In 2001, he had to shout in the direction of a journalist from Austria, then SLD MP Zdzisław Mamiñski. He himself claimed at the time that nothing like that had happened. He explained that he had drunk two glasses and talked to his colleagues about the "fascism of public life".

The inauguration of President Lech Kaczyński in front of the National Assembly (photo by Wojciech OlkuÊnik / AG)

The unusually high temperature has been reached by the relations between the deputies in the current mandate of the Sejm. This Sejm, which today celebrates the 550th anniversary of Polish parliamentarism. Of the Sejm, in which opposition for nearly a month has blocked the rostrum as part of the PiS 'attempt to limit parliament' s entry into the media. In which the speaker could exclude a deputy from the meeting that he had in his hand a card with the inscription #WolneMediawSejmie. The Sejm passed a resolution declaring invalid another resolution passed during the previous term (selection of judges of the Tribunal), and the leader of the largest party accused the opposition of having murdered his brother, the President Lech Kaczyński, and leaves of deputies as "treacherous assassins." Is there something to celebrate?

Yes. Because the Polish diet is like a democracy. Over the course of hundreds of years, he has often acted horribly, but no better legislature has invented in Poland.

34 Sejm meeting of the 8th term, deputies of the opposition block the parliamentary chair, 11/01/2017 (photo: Sławomir Kamiñski / AG)

(* for: W. Uruszczak, the oldest bicentenary parliamentary sejm of Piotrków in 1468, in: The Birth of the Republic, studies on the history of the Middle Ages and modern times, under the direction of W Bukowski and T. Jurek, T. 1, Kraków 2012, pp. 1033-1056)

Michał Gostkiewicz. Journalist and publisher of Weekend.Gazeta.pl magazine. Former journalist of Gazeta.pl, "Dziennik" and "Newsweek". Holder of a scholarship from the Murrow Program for Journalists (IVLP) of the US Department of State. Graduate of the Polish School of Reporting. He does interviews, writes on foreign policy and photography. He loves America from Alaska to Cape Horn. He manages the blog Realpolitik, he arrives on Twitter

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