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National Workers' Party

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National Workers' Party
Narodowa Partia Robotnicza
Founded23 May 1920
Dissolved9 October 1937
Merger ofNational Party of Workers
National Workers' Union
Merged intoLabor Party
HeadquartersWarsaw, Poland
NewspaperSprawa Robotnicza
Głos Robotnika
Youth wingZwiązek Młodzieży Pracującej „Jedność”
IdeologySolidarism
Corporatism
Factions:
National Democracy
Left-wing nationalism
Christian left
Political positionCentre

The National Workers' Party (Polish: Narodowa Partia Robotnicza, NPR) was a political party in Poland.

History

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The NPR was established in Warsaw on 23 May 1920 by a merger of the National Workers' Union and the National Party of Workers.[1] Strongest in Greater Poland, Pomerania, Łódź and Silesia, it had around 150,000 members by the following year.[1] It received around 5% of the vote in the 1922 elections, winning 18 seats in the Sejm and three in the Senate.[2]

The party was a member of the Józef Piłsudski governments until 1926, but then split into two factions; one retained the NPR name, whilst the other became known as NPR-Left. The NPR-Left supported Piłsudski's Sanation regime, whilst the NPR, which had been reduced to around 80,000 members, opposed it.[1] The 1928 elections saw the NPR's vote share fall to 2%. As a result, it was reduced to 11 seats in the Sejm and two in the Senate.[2]

In 1930, the NPR joined the Centrolew alliance,[1] which contested the 1930 elections. The alliance won 79 seats, of which the NPR took eight. It later became part of the Front Morges, and by 1934 only had around 20,000 members.[1] The party boycotted the 1935 elections;[1] in 1937, it merged with the Polish Christian Democratic Party to form the Labor Party.

Ideology

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The party's platform in 1921 called for social solidarity and a strong parliamentary democracy, and supported autonomy for national minorities except Jews.[1]

Election results

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Sejm

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Year Votes % Seats +/–
1922 473,676 5.41 (#6)
18 / 444
1928 228,119 1.99 (#10)
11 / 444
Decrease 7
1930 Part of Centrolew
8 / 444
Decrease 3
1935 Boycotted
1938 Boycotted

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Jerzy Jan Lerski (1996) Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Greenwood Publishing Group, p380
  2. ^ a b Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, pp1509–1512 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7