Stanisław Wojciechowski

In the legislative elections, Wojciechowski served as the candidate for the Senate though he failed to win a seat. After the legislative elections, a balance appeared between the left and right forces. This situation also preponderated in the National Assembly, which was to select a new president of Poland and produce a new presidential election. Piłsudski did not want to put up his candidacy, and Wincenty Witos was perceived as a person communicating with the right and not paying attention to the interests of rural villages. Therefore, the Polish People's Party "Piast" put forward and appointed Wojciechowski as the new candidate for the presidency not involved in current political games. He accepted this decision, but when the Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" informed that Gabriel Narutowicz planned to withdraw from the presidential race. Witos persuaded Narutowicz not to do that.

Wojciechowski was defeated in the fourth ballot to Count Maurycy Zamoyski who received 228 votes and Wojciechowski only reached 152 votes. Ate the time of the elections, the main candidates were Zamoyski and Wojciechowski. Narutowicz's good result was a surprise. Once the long voting was over, Zamoyski and Narutowicz advanced to the fifth ballot. Narutowicz finally won the election with the support of "Piast" (Wojciechowski was eliminated on the fourth round). Narutowicz prevailed thanks to the votes of the left, of the representatives for national minorities vote (these representatives were determined to defeat the National Democracy movement), and of the centrist Polish People's Party "Piast". This last group, initially inclined toward Zamoyski, unexpectedly switched its backing to Narutowicz instead. Eventually, Narutowicz won 289 votes, whereas Zamoyski won only 227 votes, and so Narutowicz was elected the first president of the Second Polish Republic.

Following the assassination of President Narutowicz by Eligiusz Niewiadomski on 16 December 1922, Marshal of the Sejm Maciej Rataj, who served briefly as acting head of state after the assassination, set the date of a new presidential election on 20 December 1922. The right-wing put forward the candidacy of Professor Kazimierz Morawski. Wojciechowski was nominated again as a compromise candidate. Władysław Sikorski was also suggested as a compromise. Originally, Wincenty Witos recommended that his own party, PSL, vote for Morawski. The left-wing of PSL opposed this however, and decided to vote for Wojciechowski, in connection with the events that led to the murder of Narutowicz. As a result of the internal party discussion, it was decided to support Wojciechowski's candidacy. In the first round, Wojciechowski secured 298 votes, with Morawski only gaining 221 votes, Wojciechowski won the election and became the second president of Poland.[7] After the election, representatives of the National Assembly appeared in Wojciechowski's residence to notify him about his election as president. He considered that the will of the Sejm and the Senate should be followed. Alfons Erdman appeared at Wojciechowski's office and demanded he abstain from accepting his choice. It was nevertheless too late, Wojciechowski decided that delay in this matter was improper. On 20 December 1922, Wojciechowski took the presidential oath and became president.

President Wojciechowski's handwritten description of his meeting with Piłsudski on the Poniatowski Bridge during the May Coup in 1926

In November 1925, the government of Prime Minister Władysław Grabski was replaced by the government of Aleksander Skrzyński, which had received support from the National Democrats and the Polish Socialist Party. General Lucjan Żeligowski became the new government's minister of military affairs. However, after the PPS withdrew its support, this government also fell and was replaced by that of Prime Minister Wincenty Witos, formed by Polish People's Party "Piast" and Christian Union of National Unity (Chjeno-Piast). However, the new government had even less popular support than the previous ones, and pronouncements from Józef Piłsudski, who viewed the constant power shifts in the Sejm as chaotic and damaging, set the stage for a coup d'état. Apart from domestic turmoil, Polish politics had been shaken by a trade war with Germany, begun in June 1925, and by the signing of the Treaty of Locarno on 16 October. Under the terms of the treaty, the World War I western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure a postwar territorial settlement in return for normalized relations with defeated Germany. On 10 May 1926, a coalition government of Christian Democrats and Agrarians was formed, and that same day Józef Piłsudski, in an interview with Kurier Poranny (the Morning Courier) newspaper, said that he was "ready to fight the evil" of sejmocracy and promised a "sanation" (restoration to health) of political life. The newspaper edition was confiscated by the authorities.

The night of 11 to 12 May, a state of alert was declared in the Warsaw military garrison, and some units marched to Rembertów, where they pledged their support to Piłsudski. On 12 May, they marched on Warsaw and captured bridges over the Wisła River. Meanwhile, Wincenty Witos' government declared a state of emergency. At about 17:00 hours, Marshal Piłsudski met Wojciechowski on the Poniatowski Bridge. Major Marian Porwit who commanded one of the troops loyal to the government), reported to the president, then reported to Piłsudski and witnessed the discussion between the two dignitaries. Piłsudski demanded the resignation of Witos' cabinet, while the President demanded Piłsudski's capitulation. After the failure of negotiations and the president's departure, Major Porwit refused Piłsudski to let him cross the bridge. On 14 May, at about 13:00 hours, Witos' cabinet decided to move from Belweder to Wilanów. Wojciechowski allowed this decision an hour later. After transferring to Wilanów, Wojciechowski and Witos negotiated with the commanders of troops loyal to the cabinet. The military decided they should move to Poznań and maintain the armed struggle from beyond. Eventually, to prevent the Warsaw fighting from turning into a country-wide civil war, both Wojciechowski and Witos decided to resign and issued an order to their troops to cease fratricidal fighting. A new government was formed under Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel, with Piłsudski as the new Minister of Military Affairs. On 31 May 1926, the National Assembly nominated Piłsudski to be president, but he declined. Eventually Ignacy Mościcki became the new president; Piłsudski, however, wielded much greater de facto power than his military ministry nominally gave him.

Following the resignation, Wojciechowski worked as a lecturer at the Warsaw School of Economics and the College of Agriculture in Warsaw. Wojciechowski served as the Director of the Cooperative Scientific Institute and later sat on the Scientific Council of the Institute. He published hermetic publications on cooperative activity, which he engaged in before he became an active politician. He wrote books such as the Organization of Agricultural Products Sales and the History of Polish Cooperatives until 1914. In 1937, he was the co-founder of the opposition Labor Party.

Wojciechowski with his wife Maria Kiersnowska (right) after being expelled from Warsaw at the end of the Warsaw Uprising (October 1944)

On 10 November 1939, the Gestapo arrested Wojciehowski's son, Edmund, as part of German AB-Aktion in Poland, and threatened with execution, as were other representatives of the Polish intelligentsia. Edmund was later released on 4 April 1940 because of Jerzy Antoni Potocki. He was later arrested again on 12 July 1940 because he was one of the 70 Warsaw lawyers who refused remove Jewish associates from the Warsaw Bar Council. The Germans offered his release in exchange for Wojciechowski signing a declaration stating that the Polish government-in-exile was constitutionally illegal. Wojciechowski refused to sign the declaration and Edmund was transferred on 15 August 1940 to the Auschwitz as one of the 1666 people of the first transport from Warsaw, where he soon died of typhus on 23 February 1941. The family received a telegram sent from the concentration camp informing Wojciechowski about his son's passing, and soon an urn of ashes containing the remains of Edmund was sent back to his parents. During the Warsaw Uprising, the ill Wojciechowski along with his wife Maria were rounded up by the Nazis and sent to Durchgangslager 121, a transit camp in Pruszków. Thanks to the efforts of the Polish sanitary staff, the German medical commission managed to release the former President from the camp.

The grave of Stanisław Wojciechowski, his wife and son in Powązki cemetery

After the war, Wojciechowski retired to private life and died in Gołąbki (now Ursus) in 1953, at the age of 84. He was buried in Powązki in Warsaw. Until the end of his life, he was convinced that everything has been bad in the history of Poland since the May Coup.