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:
“Commerce is greedy. Ideology is bloodthirsty.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Every sign is subject to the criteria of ideological evaluation.... The domain of ideology coincides with the domain of signs. They equate with one another. Wherever a sign is present, ideology is present, too. Everything ideological possesses semiotic value.”
—V.N. (Valintin Nikolaevic)
“Xenophobia looks like becoming the mass ideology of the 20th-century fin-de-siècle. What holds humanity together today is the denial of what the human race has in common.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)