Ideology
The party's views are populist and isolationist. It has also been described as nationalist. The party wants state-funded agriculture, an increase in government social programs, an end to repayments of the foreign debt, introduction of an additional transaction tax and the use of financial reserves to obtain funding. The party is hostile towards foreign investments.
Poland's June 2003 referendum on membership of the European Union was an uncomfortable experience for Samoobrona. On one hand, the party's isolationism and Euroscepticism led it to call officially for a "no" vote. On the other hand, most political observers believed (correctly) that the Polish people would vote in favour of membership, and as a populist party Samoobrona was unhappy about the likelihood of being on the losing side. In the end, the party fought a rather ambiguous campaign, with its posters carrying the slogan "the decision belongs to you".
In 2005, Samoobrona was a founding member of the EUDemocrats pan-European political party, which professes to unite "centrist" "EU-critical" parties committed to increased democratization.
Read more about this topic: Self-Defence Of The Republic Of Poland
Famous quotes containing the word ideology:
“Liberation is an evershifting horizon, a total ideology that can never fulfill its promises.... It has the therapeutic quality of providing emotionally charged rituals of solidarity in hatred—it is the amphetamine of its believers.”
—Arianna Stassinopoulos (b. 1950)
“There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“We must conclude that it is not only a particular political ideology that has failed, but the idea that men and women could ever define themselves in terms that exclude their spiritual needs.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)