Independence: 11 November 1918 (independent republic proclaimed)
National holiday: Constitution Day, 3 May (1791)
Constitution: interim "small constitution" came into effect in December 1992 replacing the Communist-imposed constitution of 22 July 1952; new democratic constitution being drafted
Legal system: mixture of Continental (Napoleonic) civil law and holdover Communist legal theory; changes being gradually introduced as part of broader democratization process; limited judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Lech WALESA (since 22 December 1990);
election first round held 25 November 1990, second round held 9
December 1990 (next to be held NA November 1995); results - second
round Lech WALESA 74.7%, Stanislaw TYMINSKI 25.3%
head of government: Prime Minister Jozef OLEKSY (since 6 March 1995);
Deputy Prime Ministers Roman JAGIELINSKI, Grzegorz KOLODKO, and
Aleksander LUCZAK (since NA)
cabinet: Council of Ministers; responsible to the president and the
Sejm
Legislative branch: bicameral National Assembly (Zgromadzenie
Narodowe)
Senate (Senat): elections last held 19 September 1993 (next to be held
no later than NA October 1997); seats - (100 total) Communist origin
or linked (PSL 34, SLD 37), post-Solidarity parties (UW 6, NSZZ 12,
BBWR 2), non-Communist, non-Solidarity (independents 7, unaffiliated
1, vacant 1)
Diet (Sejm): elections last held 19 September 1993 (next to be held no
later than NA October 1997); seats - (460 total) Communist origin or
linked (SLD 171, PSL 132), post-Solidarity parties (UW 74, UP 41, BBWR
16), non-Communist, non-Solidarity (KPN 22)
note: 4 seats are constitutionally assigned to ethnic German parties
Judicial branch: Supreme Court
Political parties and leaders:
post-Solidarity parties: Freedom Union (UW; Democratic Union and
Liberal Democratic Congress merged to form Freedom Union), Leszek
BALCEROWICZ; Christian-National Union (ZCHN), Ryszard CZARNECKI;
Centrum (PC), Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI; Peasant Alliance (PL), Gabriel
JANOWSKI; Solidarity Trade Union (NSZZ), Marian KRZAKLEWSKI; Union of
Labor (UP), Ryszard BUGAJ; Christian-Democratic Party (PCHD), Pawel
LACZKOWSKI; Conservative Party, Alexander HALL; Nonparty Bloc for the
Support of the Reforms (BBWR)
non-Communist, non-Solidarity: Confederation for an Independent Poland
(KPN), Leszek MOCZULSKI; Polish Economic Program (PPG), Janusz
REWINSKI; Christian Democrats (CHD), Andrzej OWSINSKI; German Minority
(MN), Henryk KROL; Union of Real Politics (UPR), Janusz KORWIN-MIKKE;
Democratic Party (SD), Antoni MACKIEWICZ
Communist origin: Polish Peasant Party (PSL), Waldemar PAWLAK;
Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Aleksander KWASNIEWSKI
Other political or pressure groups: powerful Roman Catholic Church;
Solidarity (trade union); All Poland Trade Union Alliance (OPZZ),
populist program