Second Republic
In the newly independent Second Polish Republic, the ND was represented first by the Popular National Union (Związek Ludowo-Narodowy), and from 1928 by the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe). A chief characteristic of ND policies was their emphasis on Polonization of minorities: ND politicians such as Dmowski and Stanisław Grabski contributed to the failure of Piłsudski's proposed Międzymorze federation and of the alliance with the Ukrainian leader Symon Petlura, and to the alienation of Poland's ethnic minorities. After Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État, the ND found itself in constant opposition to his Sanation regime. To fight the Sanation movement, the ND created the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski).
Simultaneously the ND emphasized its anti-Semitic program, aimed at excluding Jews from Polish social and economic life and ultimately at pushing them to emigration from Poland. Antisemitic actions and incidents – boycotts, demonstrations, even attacks – organized or inspired by National Democrats occurred during the 1930s. The most notorious actions were taken by a splinter group of radical young former NDs who formed the fascist-inspired National Radical Camp (Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny)
Read more about this topic: National Democracy
Famous quotes containing the word republic:
“It was the most ungrateful and unjust act ever perpetrated by a republic upon a class of citizens who had worked and sacrificed and suffered as did the women of this nation in the struggle of the Civil War only to be rewarded at its close by such unspeakable degradation as to be reduced to the plane of subjects to enfranchised slaves.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)
“Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions. A Republic is a government in which that attention is divided between many, who are all doing uninteresting actions. Accordingly, so long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, Royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and Republics weak because they appeal to the understanding.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)