Civic Platform (Polish: Platforma Obywatelska), abbreviated to PO, is a centre-right political party in Poland. It has been the major coalition partner in Poland's government since the 2007 general election, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland and Bronisław Komorowski as President. PO is the largest party in the Sejm, with 207 seats, and the Senate, with 63 seats.
The party was formed in 2001 as a split from Solidarity Electoral Action, under the leadership of Andrzej Olechowski and Maciej Płażyński, with Donald Tusk of the Freedom Union. In the 2001 election, PO emerged as the largest opposition party, behind the ruling centre-left party Democratic Left Alliance. PO remained the second-largest party at the 2005 election, but this time behind the national conservative party Law and Justice (PiS). In 2007, Civic Platform overtook PiS, now established as the two dominant parties, and formed a government in coalition with the Polish People's Party. After the Smolensk disaster, Bronisław Komorowski was elected the first President from PO.
Since its creation, the party has shown stronger electoral performances in the former (1815-1945) Prussian-German (recovered) territories of current Poland.
Civic Platform is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).
Read more about Civic Platform: History, Ideology, Notable Politicians
Famous quotes containing the words civic and/or platform:
“But look what we have built ... low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums.... Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“I have rather a strange objection to talking from the back platform of a train.... It changes too often. It moves around and shifts its ground too often. I like a platform that stays put.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)