National Revival of Poland - History and Politics

History and Politics

National Rebirth of Poland was founded as a nationalist discussion group for young people on 10 November 1981. It joined the Christian National Union when that party was founded in 1989, before leaving in February 1990. The NOP registered as a political party in 1992. The party is the only far-right organisation to claim to be a successor to the National Radical Camp Falanga (RNR), the pre-war nationalist youth organisation, which was banned in 1934.

NOP publishes the magazine Szczerbiec (the name of the Polish royal coronation sword), which lists neofascists Derek Holland and Roberto Fiore among the members of its editorial board, Młodzież Narodowa (National Youth), Myśl (The Thought), and 17 - Cywilizacja Czasów Próby.

In 2009, NOP membership in Poland was estimated at 1000. NOP also has supporters outside Poland, notably among the United States Polish community, including Polish Patriots’ Association, residing in New York City and the revisionist Polish Historical Institute in Chicago.

In 2001, the NOP tried to enter parliamentary politics for the first time. The newly created NOP front organization, the New Forces Alliance (Sojusz Nowych Sil), joined the nationalist electoral bloc, Alternative Social Movement (Alternatywa Ruch Spoleczny). Among the NOP candidates were Marcin Radzewicz, the leader of the openly neo-Nazi National Socialist Front (Front Narodowo-Socjalistyczny). ARS gained just below 0.5% of the votes, and the alliance was dissolved.

In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the NOP received 0.06% of the vote. In the 2006 self-government regional elections, it received 0.30%, or about 41 000 votes. In the 2007 parliamentary election, the NOP received 42 407 votes in four electoral districts. In the self-government regional elections in 2010, the party received 0.24% of the vote.

In the 2011 parliamentary elections, NOP senate candidate Anetta Stemler, running in the 1st electoral district, received 2 934 votes, or 3.10%.

The NOP is known for trying to get media attention with its shock value campaigns. During the 2007 parliamentary election, the NOP distributed election campaign posters with the slogan "Fascism? We are worse."

Another, openly homophobic shock value campaign conducted by the NOP was called Zakaz Pedałowania (Faggotry Forbidden). On 17 May 2006 in Toruń, the NOP organized a counter-demonstration against a public LGBT rights supporters' meeting. NOP members chanted slogans, including "gas the queers" (pedały do gazu) and "there will be a baton for each queer face" (znajdzie się kij na pedalski ryj).