Poland
Poland, 1989 to today. Draft, not yet reviewed
Through the 1980 emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, which initiated the fall of the Iron Curtain, the communist government was dissolved and Poland as the first of the communist countries re-established itself as a liberal democracy in 1989, and held free elections. Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group in 1991, and joined NATO in 1999. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004, following the consequent enlargement of the union. Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union were dismantled.
Seat of power: Warsaw
Rulers
Wojciech Jaruzelski
President of the Republic of Poland, 1989–1990
He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, making him the last leader of the Polish People's Republic. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army, which became the Polish Armed Forces.
Portrait of Wojciech Jaruzelski: Original: Unknown authorUnknown authorDerivative work: TharonXX, Public domain, file
Ryszard Kaczorowski
President of the Republic of Poland, 1989–1990
He served as the last president of Poland-in-exile. He resigned his post following Poland's regaining independence from the Soviet sphere of influence.
Portrait of Ryszard Kaczorowski: Cezary_p, CC BY-SA 3.0, file
Lech Wałęsa
President of the Republic of Poland, 1990–1995
After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratically elected president of Poland since 1922 and the first-ever Polish president elected by popular vote. He co-founded the Solidarity trade union, whose membership rose to more than ten million.
Portrait of Lech Wałęsa: Taiwan Presidential Office, CC BY 4.0, file
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Aleksander Kwaśniewski
President of the Republic of Poland, 1995–2005
His presidency was marked by modernisation of Poland, rapid economic growth (Poland's GDP doubled in ten years), the drafting of a new constitution (1997), and the accession of Poland to NATO (1999) and the European Union (2004). In 2004, he brokered a pro-democratic agreement during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
Portrait of Aleksander Kwaśniewski: © European Union 2012 - Source : EP, European Parliament, file
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Lech Kaczyński
President of the Republic of Poland, 2005–2010
He was sworn in as president on 23 December 2005. On 10 July 2006, Kaczyński appointed his brother as Prime Minister of Poland upon the resignation of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
Portrait of Lech Kaczyński: Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, GFDL 1.2, file
Bronisław Komorowski
President of the Republic of Poland, 2010–2015
As Marshal of the Sejm, Komorowski exercised the powers and duties of acting president following the death of President Lech Kaczyński in a plane crash on 10 April 2010. Komorowski was the only president of the Third Polish Republic not to experience a cohabitation while in office.
Portrait of Bronisław Komorowski: Wojciech Grzędziński, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, file
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Grzegorz Schetyna
Head of state, 2010–2010
He served as Marshal of the Sejm, and as Acting President of Poland in 2010.
Portrait of Grzegorz Schetyna: Łukasz Kamiński, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, file
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Bogdan Borusewicz
Head of state, 2010–2010
He served as the Acting President of Poland for a few hours in 2010. Borusewicz was a democratic opposition activist under the Communist regime, a member of the Polish parliament for three terms and the first Senate Marshal to serve two terms.
Portrait of Bogdan Borusewicz: Sławomir Kaczorek, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, file
Andrzej Duda
President of the Republic of Poland, 2015–2025
Duda ran in the 2015 presidential election as a candidate for the Law and Justice (PiS) party and defeated the incumbent president, Bronisław Komorowski, in a surprising and significant upset. As president, Duda heralded a political change in the country, paving the way for the sole rule of the PiS party after the 2015 parliamentary election in October, a political first in Poland.
Portrait of Andrzej Duda: Jakub Szymczuk & Adobe Photoshop, CC BY-SA 4.0, file
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Karol Nawrocki
President of the Republic of Poland, 2025 to today
He is a Polish historian and politician who has served as the 7th president of Poland since 2025. He served as the director of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) from 2021 to 2025, and was the director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk from 2017 to 2021.
Portrait of Karol Nawrocki: The White House, Public domain, file
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Culture
- The government initiated talks with the banned trade union Solidarity and other opposition groups to defuse growing social unrest.
- The most important topics of negotiations were future elections, the position of the president, Senate, practical reforms of the state's structure, and bringing back free associations and unions.
- Poland became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels as early as 1995, although the unemployment rate increased.
Picture
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, communist Poland, from 6 February to 5 April 1989.
Image: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.