Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland

The origins of Samoobrona date back to a spontaneous protest movement of farmers from Western Pomerania (the Darlowo area is the hometown of A. Lepper) and the Zamojszczyzna region, which developed into a trade union. The very creation of the political party was originally aimed solely at supporting the 'Samoobrona' Trade Union of Agriculture (ZZR 'Samoobrona'), which had played a leading role for a long time.[2]

As Lepper reported many years later. Lepper, the idea to create a trade union, and then a political movement, was born after a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Leszek Balcerowicz in the autumn of 1991: "Everything that happened afterwards - with me and Samoobrona - I therefore owe, to some extent, to that two hours long conversation of 10 years ago".[2] In January 1992, the Trade Union of Agriculture "Samoobrona" was registered. The political party, which initially appeared under the name Przymierze "Samoobrona", was registered on 12 June 1992. In addition to representatives of ZZR "Samoobrona", it also included activists from the Metalworkers' Trade Union and a Green faction headed by J. Bryczkowski.[2]

Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defence Party (Samoobrona) emerged in the early 1990s as a local protest movement of farmers caught in a debt trap with rapidly rising interest rates. As the movement expanded beyond its original local base in the north-western region of Poland as a result of high-profile violent protests in Warsaw, it became an actor beyond regional politics. While new regional offshoots emerged, Self-Defence was also involved in attempts to build a viable national protest movement. Its main allies in these ultimately futile efforts were extreme nationalist groups such as the Stronnictwo Narodowe „Ojczyzna”. Their joint demonstration in Warsaw on 2 April 1993, for example, turned violent and led to clashes with the police.[64]

The emergence of Self-Defence as an organised political group was somewhat clouded by the alleged active involvement of former members of the communist security services who acted as advisers or activists, especially in the early days. In this context, the involvement of Soviet and Russian intelligence was also alleged. This led to calls for a parliamentary enquiry into the origins of the party and possibly its hidden agendas. One of the most striking features of Self-Defence was undoubtedly its clear longing for the former regime, which was identified with social stability and prosperity.[65]

The leaders of the party frequently got into legal clashes and confrontations with the police and the judiciary because of their unruly protests. A joke became popular among Polish youth: "I wish you as much luck as the number of convictions of Lepper". At the same time, they were also invited to negotiations by the country's leaders. Self-Defence used its formal dual status as a party and a trade union, which allowed it to put on whatever hat was appropriate at the time. In the late 1990s, Lepper reportedly maintained a particularly close relationship with Artur Balazs, an agriculture minister who led the liberal-conservative Conservative People's Party, which was part of the ruling AWS. Over the years, Balazs and Lepper together built up an extensive network of patronage in the state agricultural authorities. Balazs again served as a bridge between Lepper and the conservative right in 2005.[66]

The party first started in parliamentary elections in 1993, gaining 2.78% votes and failing to enter the Sejm. In the 1995 elections Andrzej Lepper ran for president and gained 1.32% of the votes; in parliamentary elections in 1997, the party took 0.08%. In 2000 Samoobrona organized a campaign of blocking major roads in order to get media attention. Lepper gained 3.05% votes in the presidential elections.

At the end of January/beginning of February 1999, the whole of Poland was paralysed by road blockades and border crossings organised by farmers supporting the party. In addition to an increase in the purchase price of pork livestock, they demanded extensive government intervention in the cereal, meat and milk markets. The agreement concluded with the government on 8 February 1999 only emboldened the head of Samoobrona to further excesses. In June 1999, on the radio in Łódź, Andrzej Lepper called the then government "an anti-Polish and anti-human regime" and Deputy Prime Minister Tomaszewski "a bandit from Pabianice". The prosecution proceedings initiated in this case ended in a failure after less than a year: when Lepper was returning from a trade union congress in India, he was spectacularly arrested after crossing the border in Kudowa (4 April 2000) and then released after three hours.[22]

The parliamentary elections in 2001 gave the party 53 seats in the Sejm, with 10.5% support, making it the third largest political force. Although officially a member of the opposition, Samoobrona backed the ruling social democratic Democratic Left Alliance in a number of key votes, giving them the majority needed to stay in power. The party has also marked its presence in the Sejm by unconventional disruptive behavior.

The 2001 election was a huge trump for the party, which unexpectedly became the third political force in Poland. The support for Lepper's organisation in the Koszaliński district reached 23%; over 15% was recorded in the Sieradź, Chełm and Piotrków districts. Samoobrona still had weak support in big cities: in Warsaw it received 3%, in the Poznań district 5%, and in the districts of Gdańsk, Gliwice and Katowice - 6% each. The campaign itself was characterised by a much calmer tone and much less aggression. A breakthrough in the ratings of the Lepper movement occurred at the beginning of September, when it reached a borderline 4-5% support in polls, which jumped to 8-9% after just a few weeks.[22]

Lepper achieved only 3 percent nationwide among voters with a university degree and only 8 percent among voters with a high school diploma, even though the majority of students trusted him, according to surveys. Surprisingly, 9.4 percent of the self-employed voters - i.e. those doing private business - voted for Samoobrona, most of them being small entrepreneurs who feared economic competition in the event of Poland joining the EU. Overall, Lepper was elected by eleven percent of male and seven percent of female voters. He received eight per cent of the votes from voters aged 18 to 24, ten per cent from 25 to 59 and seven per cent from voters over 60. Samoobrona received 16 per cent of the vote in rural areas, eight per cent in towns with up to 50,000 inhabitants, seven per cent in towns between 50,000 and 200,000 and five per cent in towns with over 200,000 inhabitants. Samoobrona was particularly popular after the 2001 election - the survey conducted for "Rzeczpospolita" showed that in March 2002, 11 percent of Poles supported Samoobrona. In May 2002, 17 percent of Poles wanted the party to take power. The analyses of the Pentor Institute show that in April 2002, 18 percent of those questioned, i.e. almost one in five Poles, supported Samoobrona. From January to May 2002, the party's acceptance and popularity rose considerably from 9 to 17 per cent.[67]

The involvement of Piotr Tymochowicz's professional image creation company resulted, among other things, in a more attractive appearance for Andrzej Lepper (a solarium tan to mask blushing in moments of nervousness, well-tailored suits). He was also given lessons in rhetoric, eristic and retorting, and his tone of voice was lowered. The Self-Defence candidates appeared in the media wearing distinctive white and red ties, which not only made political identification easier for the voters, but also encouraged them to perceive the party as a strong and cohesive patriotic team. According to contemporary newspapers, election spots of the Lepper movement were also among the best presented in the campaign by all parties.[22]

Among their numerous exploits there are such diverse incidents as using their own loudspeakers after being cut off for exceeding the permitted time, or claiming that the largest opposition party (Civic Platform) met with members of the Taliban in Klewki (a village near Olsztyn) to sell them anthrax.[68] Several Samoobrona members of parliament were subject to criminal investigations on charges ranging from forgery to banditry.

In the 2005 elections Samoobrona received a total of 56 seats with 11.4% support. Andrzej Lepper ran for president of Poland in the 2005 election. He received third place and 15% of the vote, a great improvement over his past performances. After the elections, Samoobrona temporarily shelved its most radical demands and along with the League of Polish Families entered into a coalition with the center-right Law and Justice party.

Despite being a part of a right-wing government, the party doubled down on its left-wing rhetoric. Jarosław Tomasiewicz wrote: "This joint front with the right, however, did not mean a turn of the SRP to the right. On the contrary, Lepper's plan was for Samoobrona to take over the hegemony on the left".[34] On the next party convention, Lepper stated: "I set myself the aim to convince the electorate of the left in such a way that they understand that the only left-wing, pro-social and patriotic party is currently Samoobrona".[34]

To this end, the party started cooperating with minor left-wing parties such as the Democratic Left Party, the Working People's Movement and the National Party of Retirees and Pensioners. The ranks of Self-Defence included activists from the Democratic Left Alliance (e.g. Grzegorz Tuderek, Bolesław Borysiuk) and the Labour Union (Andrzej Aumiller). To a large extent, Lepper's plan succeeded - while right-leaning voters defected to the League of Polish Families, this was compensated by further gains amongst left-wing voters - mainly pensioners, workers of bankrupt workplaces and former officers of the uniformed services.[34]

According to contemporary polls, Self-Defence overtook Democratic Left Alliance in terms of popularity. Contemporary commentators speculated that Self-Defence might emerge as the new main left-wing party in Poland.[31] Parallel to its parliamentary activity, the SRP tried to be active in the social sphere. The party started to cooperate with organisations of disabled people (even appointing a special plenipotentiary for contacts with them) and the circles of single mothers. However, scandals that rocked the party made its popularity collapse.[34]

In December 2006 a scandal broke out when Aneta Krawczyk, a local party ex-leader accused Samoobrona leaders, notably Andrzej Lepper and Stanisław Łyżwiński of sexual harassment.[69] Subsequently, the accusation was supported by other females from within the party ranks and the issue of gaining governmental posts in exchange for sex produced a major outcry after Gazeta Wyborcza published the claims. Krawczyk also claimed her then 3-year-old daughter was Stanisław Łyżwiński's child, which proved to be incorrect following DNA testing.

The criminal trial in this case began in 2008 before the District Court of District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski, which in February 2010 sentenced Lepper to two years and three months' imprisonment and Łyżwiński to five years of imprisonment. Both have maintained that they were innocent. In March 2011, the Court of Appeal in Łódź overturned the verdict against Lepper in the sex affair and referred the case for retrial by the Regional Court. Afterwards, Aneta Krawczyk filed a court accusation that Lepper was the father of her youngest child. However, an examination of his DNA ruled out this allegation. These events caused not only politicians, but also the public public condemned the Samoobrona activists. It lost a part of its electorate. Lepper almost disappeared from the media. Rarely invited to interviews, he generally focused on criticising the right-wing Law and Justice party.[70]

At the beginning of July 2007, then Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński named Lepper as a person in the circle of suspicion in connection with the so-called "land affair". This concerned a CBA (Central Anti-Corruption Bureau) operation concerning the controlled payment of bribes to two people accused of citing influence in the Ministry of Agriculture. They offered a substituted CBA agent, for a bribe, the de-agglomeration of land in Muntów in the municipality of Mrągowo. The operation ended inconsistently with the CBA's plan, because - as the prosecution initially assumed - Lepper had been warned about the action and cancelled the meetings. However, at the request of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, President Lech Kaczyński dismissed Lepper from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. This decision marked the end of the coalition.[70]

The party's position towards the scandal was that it was a "coup attempt", as the presence of Samoobrona in the government supposedly thratened powerful "interest groups", including corporations controlling large-format shops, investment fund owners, land speculators and property development groups. Lepper also argued that the scandals and investigations started against him were aimed at eliminating competition for Lech Kaczyński for future presidential elections.[71] After unsuccessful attempts of Law and Justice to convince some of the Samoobrona MPs to defect, the PiS-Samoobrona-LPR coalition was officially dissolved on 5 August 2007. Reasons cited were ideological differences between PiS and Samoobrona on fundamental levels.[72]

Following the collapse of the ruling coalition, a proposal of a joint front between Samoobrona and right-wing League of Polish Families was born, known as League and Self-Defence (Polish: Liga i Samoobrona). The Polish abbreviation for this party was LiS ("fox" in Polish), and leaders of both parties brought a plush fox to the press conference, which was shown as the mascot of the new party.[73] However, despite their populist character, LPR and Samoobrona were fundamentally different from each other, as Samoobrona was left-wing and aligned with socialist ideals, while LPR was a National-Catholic, far-right party. Andrzej Lepper himself admitted that the alliance was a bad idea, and argued that the alliance was purely situation and tactical in nature.[72]

The idea was highly unpopular amongst Samoobrona supporters, as a majority of them identified as left-wing[40] and desired a return to a socialist economy.[39] A chunk of the Catholic socialist wing of the party known as Social Movement seceded to form a new party called Self-Defence Social Movement (Polish: Samoobrona Ruch Społeczny), which then became Self-Defence Rebirth.[74]

The idea of the LiS party was then soon abandoned, and the party doubled down on its left-wing rhetoric, inviting Leszek Miller and the leader of the New Left, Piotr Ikonowicz, to its electoral lists. Despite this, numerous scandals heavily damaged the image of the party, while forming a government with right-wing parties and the LiS caused distrust among the party's overwhelmingly left-wing electorate.[23] As a result, the party gained less than 2% of the popular vote in the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, failing to win any seats and being excluded from government funding.[75]

In November 2007, the regionalist wing of the party seceded and formed Party of Regions, further weakening local structures of the party. Lepper accepted responsibility for the party's electoral defeat and announced an extraordinary congress of Self-Defence in the first half of 2008. Lepper also announced that he did not intend to challenge or clash with the Party of Regions. In party congress, Lepper stressed that Samoobrona's goals from the time when it was a classic protest party, such as the reversal of privatisation processes, had not been realised and were still a political task for the party.[76]

The party also reestablished its reputation as an unequivocally left-wing party.[77] Talks were initiated with the Polish Socialist Party led by Piotr Ikonowicz and the democratic-socialist National Party of Retirees and Pensioners, proposing to establish "a worker–peasant alliance".[78] There was also an attempt to establish a new party that would represent socialist left, with a view to prepare for the 2009 European Parliament election in Poland. However, the party went bankrupt by the end of 2007 as it was unable to pay for its 2007 electoral campaign. The party was also unable to cover its bills, and electricity and the alarm system were disconnected from the party headquarters. Lepper founded a new party known as "Self-Defence" (as opposed to "Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland") in 2010, which sustained itself solely on membership fees and had no commitments.[79]

In 2010, Lepper started suffering from depression and began to lose faith that the tables would turn. In February 2010, he was inconvicably sentenced to two years and three months in prison for the sex affair. The leader of Self-Defence was also plagued by the troubles of his son Tomasz - in October 2010, the bank sold the agricultural machinery for non-payment of the lease. On 5 August 2011, Lepper committed suicide.[80] According to the official investigation, Lepper was planning to return to Polish politics. Co-workers of Lepper such as Janusz Maksymiuk also confirmed that the politician was already planning an election campaign for his party.[81] On the day of his suicide, the television in his room showed a paused frame from a conference between Donald Tusk and the Minister of National Defence at 13:14. The caption on the news bar read: "It's time for the campaign to begin".[79]

In August 2011, news of the death of Andrzej Lepper reached the public. According to media reports, the leader of Samoobrona was to have hanged himself in his office, which was the party's headquarters. Before Lepper's funeral took place, the media eagerly reconstructed his last moments and the accompanying circumstances and alleged reasons for his suicide. Journalists' attention was particularly absorbed by the last hours of Lepper's life.[70]

After Lepper's death, the political significance of the party greatly declined, even though formally the party still existed. The party was never able to recover from the loss of its leader, and did not develop further - Samoobrona's socio-economic program posted on its website is still signed by Andrzej Lepper, and the ideology of the party greatly narrowed to continuing the legacy of Lepper.[25]

In February 2016, the party signed a cooperation agreement with the ruling party in Belarus, Belaya Rus.[82]

The party registered an electoral list for the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, but did not field any candidates for the Sejm or Senate seats. On 13 October 2023, the chairman of the party Krzysztof Proporczyk published a statement declaring that Samoobrona does not endorse any political party and asked its supporters and sympathizers to vote according to their own conscience. The party also encouraged its supporters to participate in the 2023 Polish referendum. Despite stating its neutrality, Samoobrona also made a remark referencing the 2005 Polish presidential election: "Samoobrona RP remembers how Andrzej Lepper, winning 15% of the vote in the presidential elections, handed it over to Lech Kaczyński, who won those elections. We all remember how it ended."[83] This remark referenced the ill-fated PiS-LPR-Samoobrona government coalition that lasted from 2005 to 2007; by the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, PiS had expelled Samoobrona from the coalition and is credited with causing the electoral downfall of Samoobrona, as PiS effectively overshadowed Samoobrona's socialist appeal with its social populist rhetoric.[84]

Samoobrona had a protectionist attitude toward the country's economy. They wanted to take higher custom tariffs on foreign goods. Party opted for controlling of Narodowy Bank Polski by Sejm. Additionally, the party's leader Andrzej Lepper was in favor of reintroducing PGRs which were state-owned and controlled homesteads existing during the communist era in Poland.[124] Samoobrona called itself "the voice of all social groups which, as a result of the reforms of the 1990s, have found themselves on the edge of poverty and despair" and in 2002, Andrzej Lepper stated: "I am the voice of the poor, deprived and humiliated … Self-Defence and Andrzej Lepper never were, are not, and never will be ‘them’. We are ‘us’."[125]

The party also expressed vehement opposition to capitalism, stating that "capitalism is the primacy of capital and profit over labour and man" and arguing that "capitalism is that system which has already outlived itself". Lepper declared that Samoobrona was an anti-capitalist party, arguing that capitalism results in "degenerate consumerism".[126] Samoobrona stated that it desires "a strong state that will deservedly command the respect of all citizens, as a guarantor of their security, and thus create a structure with which they will want to identify".[25] The party promotes an economic program that mixes agrarianism with economic nationalism, socialism, and religious elements.[127] Central to the party's economic agenda is its complete rejection of capitalism - Samoobrona rejects both commerce and the market itself. According to Vít Hloušek and Lubomír Kopeček, the program of the party also incorporates anarchist elements.[99] The party is very close ideologically to radical left-wing agrarian formations from the era of Second Polish Republic. Rhetorically, Samoobrona also includes a strongly Catholic moralist message, calling for a return of supposedly abandoned Catholic and humanitarian values, and wishes to fight "satanic" values in society such as consumerism.[99]

According to Luke March, the party promoted a radical anti-globalisation and anti-neoliberal rhetoric and closely embraced trade unions, with the resulting economic program being an agrarian socialist and left-wing populist vision. Samoobrona promoted a highly interventionist system and wanted to replace materialism and consumerism with a closer relationship with the natural environment, including "the preservation of small-scale family farms and a humane treatment of animals". Party members made reference to terms such as "eco-development" and "econology", which aimed to promote ecology, Catholic ethics and morality in both economics and politics. The main concept of the party's economic ideology was social justice; in its 1999 manifesto the party stated: "We want a Poland, in which there will not be such drastic material differences: no so-called ‘ocean of destitution’ with tiny islands of wealth and well-being".[128]

In 1994, the program of Samoobrona stated: "Capitalism is not a perpetual system. It must give way to new concepts of human relations, to a new ecological morality. A new post-capitalist era is already being born".[129] The postulates of Andrzej Lepper and his party were egalitarian, emphasising above all the need for a fair redistribution of wealth and the subordination of the economy and its mechanisms to serve social and common good. The party strongly demanded state intervention in the economy, and stressed the need to apply protectionist customs aimed at protecting the interests of domestic producers. Lepper argued that in the light of the experience of capitalist countries, it was dangerous to "succumb to dogmatic thinking consisting in an unwavering belief in the superiority of capitalist free market mechanisms in all areas of economic life". Samoobrona argued that the adherence of post-communist Polish governments to dogmatic capitalism had led to the abandonment of the basic tasks of the state and the violation of essential human rights.[130]

The party is generally considered to have been the most critical, and even negative, of the post-1989 transition into a market economy. Samoobrona strongly opposed deregulation and privatisation, and wanted to reverse these actions. Samoobrona also promoted anti-globalization rhetoric, believing that neoliberal economics first and foremost serves the international financial institutions and leads to a situation where "a few hundred companies in the world want to dominate everything". Referring to the Marxist doctrine, Lepper believed that "he who has power has ownership of the means of production".[131] The party believed that public ownership should have supremacy over any kind of private property, arguing that "private property cannot be treated as privileged, sacred and inviolable". The party also proposed restoration of state monopolies, including total state ownership of raw materials, mining industries, the energy sector, armaments, transport infrastructure, banking and insurance, as well as lottery, spirits and tobacco industry, regarded by the party as important sources of budget revenue.[132]

Samoobrona attributed great importance to trade unions and cooperatives, arguing that its heritage dating back to the 19th century was destroyed in 1990. The party accused Polish politicians of destroying Polish cooperatives, including entities with such long-standing traditions as "Społem" and "Samopomoc Chłopska", arguing that individual governments did not try to counteract the discriminatory practices applied to cooperatives by banks and other institutions.[133] Co-operatives, according to Samoobrona, should benefit from fiscal facilities and the state should undertake the task of stimulating the dying co-operative movement. Samoobrona argued that trade unions and rural cooperatives are to fulfill a very important economic role, and credited these groups with enforcing several pro-worker reforms in Western countries.[134]

One of the key properties of the party's economic ideology was its positive assessment of socialism and communism. Lepper believed that there is no point in "ritual condemnations of Soviet Communism" and argued that the atrocities of Joseph Stalin should be seen as degeneration of communist doctrine rather than the result of it. In regards to the Polish People's Republic, Lepper stated: "...I do not agree (...) that those 45 years were lost for Poland, that today we are starting from scratch".[119] The party had a particularly high opinion of Edward Gierek's rule, which was regarded as a time of modernisation based on Western models. The intransigent critics of the communist period, located in the Law and Justice party and the Solidarity movement, were described by Samoobrona as "extreme right-wing". Mirosław Karwat considered Samoobrona to be "probably the only political party that speaks well of Communist Poland".[36]

Although, Samoobrona was based on the social teaching of Catholic church, the party had right as well as left-leaning elements in its program regarding social issues. Samoobrona supported bringing back of the death penalty to the polish order's law. They were opposed to liberalization of abortion law in Poland and legalisation of euthanasia. However, they took also leftist positions on some matters. Samoobronna was declared in its party platform to legalize civil unions to same-sex couples. Alongside SLD it was the only party who voted in favor of a bill embracing civil unions in 2004.[135] In its campaign in 2007 Samoobrona called for a complete legalization of marijuana. That was the first party which brought up this theme in published Polish debate.[136][137]

On social issues, Samoobrona was considered to be highly flexible; Lepper mainly focused on pressing his anti-establishment credentials, promoting Catholic social values and courting Catholic media such as Radio Maryja. At the same time, Lepper expressed his support for legalizing marijuana and same-sex partnerships, an anathema to Christian conservatives. Lepper also made overtures with left-wing parties such as the Polish Socialist Party led by Piotr Ikonowicz and the democratic-socialist National Party of Retirees and Pensioners, proposing to establish "a worker–peasant alliance". Perhaps the best illustration of the Samoobrona's ideological flexibility is that despite leading an agrarian and anti-liberal movement, Lepper also promoted environmentalism. Lepper received the Albert Schweitzer Medal from New York-based Animal Welfare Institute in the early 2000s, and Samoobrona was praised by American animal activists. Lepper stated that animals must be "treated with respect, dignity and sympathy" and condemned modern methods of meat production as "concentration camps for animals".[78]

Because of the overwhelmingly diverse electorate and the impossibility of developing a unified position in the most intense debates regarding ethics and religion within the party, Samoobrona tries not to proclaim an unequivocal view on social issues, often simply avoiding taking any position in the public debate. Lepper only emphasised that Catholic ethics and the achievements of the Church are an important element of the cultural heritage shaping national and regional identity. Mateusz Piskorski argued that on social matters, Samoobrona often presented moderate or centre-left views.[138]

One of the most debates social topics in Polish politics was the issue of abortion. Samoobrona's position on this issue is rather moderate; as in many other cases, Andrzej Lepper, while avoiding a clear answer, pointed to the social sources of the large number of abortions, related to social exclusion and poverty. Jacek Raciborski argues that statements by the leader of Samoobrona indicated that he was closer to a moderate liberal position on this issue.[139] As such, Samoobrona made statements regarding not only the ethical aspects of the issue, but also the demographic dimension of the problem was emphasised. In 2005, the party was in favour of retaining the wording of the abortion legislation at the time, considering it a valuable compromise reached on this issue. The contemporary system for the protection of children's rights and the prevention of domestic violence has also provoked discussions on the possibility of additional criminalisation of violence against children. Samoobrona in 2005 supported a bill prepared by the offices of the Commissioner for Equal Status of Women and Men to introduce a ban on physical punishment of minors.[140]

Regarding the issue of the LGBT community, Piskorski argued that "it is rather difficult to find any homophobic themes in the program enunciations and speeches of Samoobrona politicians".[141] Lepper stressed that he was in favour of allowing the organisation of pride parades, although he stipulated that they should not provide an opportunity for speech that could be considered "demoralising".[100] Lepper argued that the existence of sexual minorities was a normal phenomenon that there was no point in stigmatising in any way, and stated his neutrality on the issue of granting homosexual couples the possibility to marry and adopt children.[142] Unlike politicians of the far right, Lepper did not regard homosexuality as a disease, and called it "a certain genetic predisposition that occurs in every era". Nevertheless, the problem of sexual minorities was sometimes consciously marginalised by Samoobrona politicians; it was argued that some left-wing formations gave it too much importance, and thus pushed far more important issues concerning the social and economic rights of the majority of citizens into the background.[143]

Although Samoobrona has repeatedly been accused of nationalist or even xenophobic tendencies, the party did not devote much space in its public activities to the issue of national and ethnic minorities.[144] The understanding of the nation preferred by the party leaders was not ethnocentric and exclusivist in nature; the national community was treated as "a collectivity constituted by ties of culture, tradition and history, and not by common origin". Lepper argued for the necessity of equal rights for all minorities with other Polish citizens, deeming property claims based on nationality to be unjustified. The party also had a notable regionalist movement, and some Samoobrona politicians discussed the problem of Silesians, regarded as a nation on its own that was often marginalised or suppressed.[145] The regionalist wing split off from Samoobrona in 2007, creating the Party of Regions.[146]

The party also spoke in favour of gender equality while in the Sejm, surprising political commentators with its progressive stance, as the party assigned the blame for social ills on systemic problems, rather than the decline of the traditional family. In 2004, Samoobrona's member of parliament Włodzimierz Czechowski said:

The circumstances for family development are so stressful and harmful nowadays that we should be surprised anyone is still having children. Being laid off is a failure and loss of one's life's work, the dissolution and pathology of the family. It's only thanks to the wisdom of Polish women that impoverished families haven't started selling their children yet. Dear ladies! It's not men who discriminate against women, it's Poland's nasty liberal policy, which results in unemployment levels unheard of in Europe. Isn't it hypocrisy to appoint special institutions that fight for women's right without taking care of the country's economic development? The legal system is discriminating against you, women. Subsidies, child support and welfare payments have been fixed at below the biological minimum.[147]

In regards to electoral law, the party was a staunch supporter of proportional representation. Samoobrona spoke on 2000s attempts to reform the Polish electoral law by right-wing Law and Justice (PiS); in July 2006, PiS submitted the electoral reform to the Speaker of the Sejm - the law introduced blocks of lists in municipalities with over 20 000 inhabitants, with the simultaneous application of the d'Hondt method in the intra-group distribution of votes for seats and the rule that groups of lists which received at least 10% of the validly cast votes could participate in the distribution of seats at all levels of local government elections. This law was criticised for undeservedly favouring the strongest parties of the bloc, giving them a significant over-representation in future councils and assemblies. Despite forming a coalition government with PiS at the time, Samoobrona also opposed this law, and called for abandonment of the D'Hondt method in favour of a more proportional apportionment method; Sainte-Laguë method used in the 2001 Polish parliamentary election was seen as the best and more proportional alternative at the time.[148]

One of the leading demands of Samoobrona in the field of foreign policy was the demand for its full economisation. This process was to involve a move away from ideological principles to a calculation based solely on estimating the benefits of trade with specific countries. The political assessment of a foreign economic partner was not to be given any importance; the only binding criterion for assessing foreign policy should be the growth of Polish exports and the possibilities for Polish entities to derive financial benefits.[149]

An additional, complementary field of action for diplomacy was to combat negative stereotypes of Poles in other countries, described by Samoobrona as anti-Polish. According to the party, it should be the duty of Polish diplomats, as well as politicians sitting in the European Parliament, to oppose negative stereotypes and historical falsifications, such as the use of the phrase "Polish concentration camps" in foreign journalism. An important role as ambassador of Polish interests abroad was attributed to the Polish diasporas scattered around the world.[150] It was postulated that Polish diasporas should be covered by state aid and be given the opportunity to return to their homeland. Samoobrona supported a bill providing the possibility for representatives of the Polish minority abroad to obtain Karta Polaka, arguing that the survival of Polish culture and language should be a reason for respect for Poles living abroad. The repatriation operation of Kazakhstan residents of Polish origin also met with the party's support.[151]

Many authors and commentators, both Polish and foreign ones, considered Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland to be a Eurosceptic party.[152] This was due to the party's protectionist and nationalist program, which many commentators considered Eurosceptic by nature.[153] According to some authors, labelling Samoobrona as an Eurosceptic party was legitimate given opinion polls, which showed that in terms of opposition to Poland's accession to the EU, Samoobrona were only slightly less hostile to EU than the LPR voters.[154] However, while for the LRP the issue of European integration was one of the most important ones, in the case of Samoobrona, the issue of EU did not play an important role.[155]

Lepper argued that Samoobrona's criticism of the EU accession was exclusively related to the conditions of Poland's membership in the Union, and not a negation of the purposefulness of integration processes as such. The basis of Samoobrona's position was based on a set of beliefs characteristic of the so-called economic Euroscepticism. The party's declared pragmatism in assessing the consequences of possible membership was characteristic, and the inconsistency of views and assessments on European integration was most likely linked to the existence of diverse attitudes on the issue among both party members and supporters themselves, which became particularly evident after 1 May 2004, when some Samoobrona members became beneficiaries of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Because of the lack of decisive and conclusive enunciations on Poland's membership in the Union, J. Sielski described the party's position on European integration as "Euro-populist".[156]

The leader of Samoobrona himself preferred to call his stance on Poland's participation in the European integration process "Eurorealism", and directed his criticism of the unfavourable provisions of the Accession Treaty at Polish governments and negotiators rather than European Commission officials. According to Piskorski, given the presence of a number of features which would indeed make it possible to classify the party into the Eurorealist camp (an ambivalent attitude to the accession, the secondary role of this issue in programme pronouncements, variability of rhetoric resulting from the assessment of the mood of the electorate), "such self-identification seems to be largely justified".[157]

The party took a moderately sceptical stance on the introduction of a common European currency in Poland. According to Lepper, accession to the Monetary Union would be advisable only on the condition that Poland achieves a level of economic development similar to that of Western European countries; otherwise, depriving the National Bank of Poland of the ability to shape monetary policy poses a threat to the country's sovereignty in this fundamental area. In addition, it was argued that the price effects of the introduction of the euro would be unacceptable to Polish society. The party's experts argued that the countries that had not decided to join the euro area maintained a higher level of economic development while avoiding the price increases that the introduction of the common currency would have caused.[158]

The party declared its support for the process of further enlargement of the European Union, in contrast to right-wing parties, allowing membership to be granted not only to Ukraine, but also to Turkey.[159] The commencement of negotiations with the latter country was supported by the majority of Samoobrona MEPs, who voted in favour of the relevant resolution. Unlike some right-wing parties, Samoobrona did not make support for a country's EU membership dependent on its cultural face and civilisational affiliation, but only on the fulfilment of formal membership conditions. On the other hand, it declared that the country's admission to the EU should not be at the expense of the funds allocated to Poland, which led R. Czarnecki to conclude that rather unhurried negotiations were necessary.[160]

The participation of Polish soldiers in the NATO operation in Afghanistan was consistently contested by Samoobrona. The main arguments cited were the cost of warfare and the risk of loss of life of Polish soldiers. Samoobrona was very consistently and strongly opposed to the Iraq War.[161] It was the only Polish party which as late as at the turn of 2002 and 2003 (before the invasion began) stated its expression to war.[162] After the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Hussein's government, Lepper suggested that the forces of the international coalition should be replaced by peacekeeping formations operating under the aegis of the United Nations. In a petition addressed to then President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Samoobrona also drew attention to the contradictory nature of the operation in Iraq against international law. It was emphasised that a sovereign country, posing no threat, even potential, to Poland's security, had been attacked. The war in Iraq was described as "aggressive" and constituting a violation of international standards.[163]

Samoobrona strongly emphasised its attachment to Roman Catholicism, particularly valuing the authority of Pope John Paul II; the leader of Samoobrona highlighted his visits to the Vatican, emphasising that he considered the Pope to be anmoral unquestionable authority. In numerous party programme documents issued over the course of several years, there were frequent references to the achievements of John Paul II and attempts to interpret Polish socio-economic reality in terms of the pope's proposed ethical standards. In interpreting the Pope's teaching, Samoobrona particularly accentuated those that included criticism of capitalism.[25]

The party was particularly attached to the declaration of Pope John Paul II from 1991, stating: "It is unacceptable to claim that, after the defeat of real socialism, capitalism remained the only model of economic organisation". Samoobrona often repeated and highlighted this quote. The party argued that the downfall of communist Poland was not caused by its socialist economy, but rather by state atheism and its hostility towards the Catholic Church and its social teaching.[25] Samoobrona contrasted this with its own socialism, which it described as based on agrarianism, patriotism and the Catholic social teaching. The party believed that this kind of Polish socialism, based on nationalist and religious tradition, would be the best possible system for Poland. The party promoted an utopian vision of "Polish socialism" based on small family farms, rural co-operatives, an end to the exploitation of the countryside and nationalised industry, with peasants being considered the "healthiest element of society, both biologically and morally".[128]

In the party's program there is a whole series of declarations and sometimes direct references to the concepts proclaimed by Catholic social teaching.[164] In 1995, Lepper declared that "the indications in the Encyclicals of John Paul II, especially in the Encyclical Laborem Exercens, became an inspiration for us in the formulation of our professional and social programmes", lamenting the insufficient presentation of the achievements of Catholic social teaching in the mass media. The social teaching of the Church was to provide an alternative to capitalism and neoliberalism; in this case, reference was made not only to papal encyclicals, but also to the sermons of Cardinal Wyszyński, in which the postulate of Poland's embarking on its own path of social and economic development, resulting from its specific tradition, was found. The party's program from 2003 also stated: "The Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland is guided by the social teaching of the Church and fully shares the indications of the greatest moral authority of our times, Pope John Paul II, contained in his encyclicals".[165]

Samoobrona also self-identified as Christian left, claiming to represent a broad group of both Catholic and secular left; Lepper stated: "A social economy, free education, culture, education and health care, decent living conditions for pensioners, blocking the negative effects of globalisation, caring for the environment - these are just selected examples of leftism in state policy." However, the party rejected National Catholicism, and Lepper rejected the view of National Catholic circles that the Church and Roman Catholics are being discriminated and excluded from the public life of Poland, calling such criticisms "too alarmist and exaggerated".[140]

The party used a lot of religious rhetoric in regards to economic issues, presenting anti-capitalist, anti-liberal, anti-"cosmopolitan" and anti-market ideas. The key foundation of economic ideology of Samoobrona was a combination of socialism with the principles of Catholic social teaching, rejecting capitalism as "fiscal repression and total commercialisation" while also strongly attacking a "reductionist" economic-theoretical approach, typical of the "Anglo-Germanic mentality" and based on the "Protestant dogma of predestination". As a counter-proposal, the party praised "econology", defined as the prioritisation of ecology in economic thinking. The post-1989 socioeconomic situation in Poland was described as "socio-economic satanism" or "economic genocide", and the party manifesto read: "All the tragedies that the Poles are experiencing ... are the consequence of the loss of their own sovereignty and the subordination of the country to foreign interests, as carried out by a group of venal politicians who, thanks to political fraud and by lying to the Polish people, have been able to make their own decisions. are the consequence of the loss of their own sovereignty and the subordination of the country to foreign interests, as carried out by a group of venal politicians who have brought themselves to power thanks to political fraud and by lying to the voters."[166] However, Samoobrona is explicitly socialist and not only sympathises with the former People's Republic of Poland, but openly identifies with its communist form of society and socialist ideals.[167]

Despite its attachment to Catholicism, the party also made statements critical of the church. Lepper deplored the attitude of a part of the Catholic hierarchy, for example by criticising the lack of interest of Primate Józef Glemp in a meeting with the party's delegation.[168] During the transformation period, the Polish bishops were accused of lacking social sensitivity, and of being materialistic and building a financial empire; Lepper went as far as stating that "they value money more than God". Glemp was criticised by Samoobrona for his lack of concern for the fate of Polish farmers, above all in the context of the Primate's statements suggesting support for police interventions against participants of agricultural blockades.[169] Additionally, Andrzej Lepper expressed some understanding for the demands appearing in the 1990s in the circles of secular left for excluding religious instruction from public schools.[170]

On the other hand, the group supported the ratification of the concordat with the Holy See, accepting "the unique position of the Catholic Church vis-à-vis other confessions in Poland". Given the much higher level of religiosity in rural areas, Samoobrona's leaders often appeared at religious ceremonies without political risk and even gained some support, for example on the occasion of the Jasna Góra Harvest Festival.[171] This did not prevent them from criticising those representatives of the Episcopate who were critical of the agricultural protests co-organised by Samoobrona.[172] On the other hand, party politicians emphasised that they boasted the sympathy of a large proportion of parish priests in rural parishes. The party's electorate, according to available surveys, was heterogeneous on issues related to the desirable nature of state-church relations. While it was possible to discern among party sympathisers supporters of limiting the role of the Church as an institution in public life (e.g. those advocating the abolition of the Church Fund), anticlerical sentiments did not turn into attempts to negate the ethical message of the Roman Catholic Church.[170]

In 1993, Andrzej Lepper took part in an interview with journalists Jan Ul and Henryk Gaworski, where Lepper introduced Samoobrona and the ideology of the party. Lepper identified with the rebel faction of the Polish United Workers' Party that opposed the leading "Jaruzelski-Rakowski" wing and wanted to prevent the "policy of selling out genuinely socialist ideals and values". He also stated that Samoobrona wished to replace the capitalism of Balcerowicz with "a system that would satisfy human needs, that would prioritise man over labour and labour over capital, and would not be a system of the market but a system of social control over economic life through the state and trade unions"; Lepper admitted that this system would be socialist, but stressed the "indigenous", nationalist, "patriotic" and Catholic character of Samoobrona's socialism, one that was to be inspired by Catholic social teaching and agrarian-socialist pre-WW2 peasant movements.[173] He also made remarks towards green socialism, sparking further questions about the nature of the party.[174]

Lepper shocked the interviewers by stressing the environmentalist character of the party, explaining that he founded Samoobrona "because the spectre of economic and biological doom is staring us in the face". In the interview, he stated:

It is a personal dream of mine that we clean up this common Poland of ours, tidy up its roads, regulate its rivers, build reservoirs, remove dirt and rubbish dumps, broken fences, potholed pavements and derelict buildings - in short, take a serious and effective approach to the environment and ecology. Then we would all breathe easier. For these reasons, our Samoobrona movement is akin to the Greens, with whom we will gladly cooperate.

— Andrzej Lepper, Samoobrona - Dlaczego? Przed czym?, (Warsaw 1993), p. 42

Despite its agrarian character, Samoobrona also identified with the green movement, and environmentalists were an important part of Lepper's social and political circle; Samoobrona was founded not only by agrarian trade unions, but a minor Polish green party as well.[175] Party's program promoted the concepts of "eco-development" and "econology", which were described as replacement of consumerism and materialism in favour of "a closer relationship with the natural environment, the preservation of small-scale family farms and a humane treatment of animals". Samoobrona stated that it desired to introduce new ways of thinking into Polish economics that would encompass ecology, social ethics and Catholic morality. Concrete environmentalist proposals included in the party's program were opposition to agroindustrial development and 'intensive farming methods'.[176]

Rafal Soborski listed Samoobrona as an example of an anti-globalist environmentalist movement, using rhetoric aligned with green movements - Samoobrona attacked corporations for pursuing profit-driven policies that are harmful to both the environment and the well-being of the society. Both greens and Samoobrona considered international corporations responsible for global inequality and exploitation, imprisoning "the majority of people in impoverished enclaves [in order to] move production there". This anti-corporation rhetoric also had cultural and nationalist themes, as anti-globalist and ecological movements attacked the progressing "McDonaldization of society" that contradicted and threatened national and local identities. Samoobrona mixed environmentalist undertones with agrarian issues, accusing big companies of destroying Polish farming by flooding the Polish market with foreign, poor-quality products. The party campaigned for expelling foreign capital in Poland in order to protect native farms and local products.[177]

In 1999, Samoobrona entered a coalition with the American-based Animal Welfare Institute against Smithfield Foods, American food company that wanted to enter the Polish market. After years of the neoliberal "shock therapy" that allowed foreign companies to outcompete Polish farms, the discontent of Polish farmers resulted in mass protests in 1999 organised by Samoobrona. The protests grew to 8000 protesting farmers and resulted in a total of 120 blockades. Samoobrona protesters became militant and clashed with the police, often resulting in confrontations which forced the police to use tear gas and water cannons. The Polish government capitulated to protesters' demands after a month, reforming its agricultural policy and imposing high tariffs on food imports. Surveys at the time showed that 75 percent of Polish population supported Samoobrona's protests, and the party continued its protests and decided to participate in the "Trojan Pig Tour" organised by AWI.[178]

Lepper agreed to make anti-Smithfield lobbying a key plank of his presidential campaign, while also organising protests against Smithfield's expansion into the Polish market. While Lepper only won 3 percent of the popular vote in the 2000 Polish presidential election, he succeeded in setting the stage for Samoobrona's electoral success in 2001 parliamentary elections, and his anti-Smithfield campaigning mobilised Polish farmers against the company. Samoobrona organised a conference together with AWI in May 2000, promoting ecology and alternatives to industrial farming. At the same time, Samoobrona steadily incorporated more ecological and animal welfare themes into its program. Later in 2000, AWI-Samoobrona movement was endorsed by the president of Polish National Veterinary Chamber, Bartosz Winiecki, who recruited Polish veterinarians to the anti-Smithfield coalition. In the end, six thousands Polish doctors of veterinary medicine and twenty thousand veterinary technicians joined the coalition's protests.[179]

Environmental activism of Samoobrona and AWI bore fruit in July 2000, when Polish Minister of Agriculture, Artur Balazs, declared that the government will oppose Smithfield's plans to introduce corporate farming in Poland. Smithfield conceded later that months, announcing that it was abandoning its plans to expand its activities into Poland. Samoobrona's activities proved crucial to bringing about a corporate farming ban in Poland; according to Joe Bandy and Jackie Smith, "the coalition between AWI and Samoobrona represents one of the successful cases in the emerging global justice movement".[180] For his environmental activism, Lepper was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Medal in 2000. The leader of Samoobrona stated his commitment to animal welfare, stressing that animals must be treated "with respect, dignity and sympathy" and condemning modern meat industry as "concentration camps for animals".[78]