Spring (political party)

Political party in Poland

Spring

Wiosna

Leader| Robert Biedroń
General Secretary| Krzysztof Gawkowski
Founder| Robert Biedroń
Founded| 3 February 2019; 6 years ago (2019-02-03)
Dissolved| 11 June 2021; 4 years ago (2021-06-11)
Split from| Your Movement
Democratic Left Alliance (minor)
Merged into| New Left
Headquarters| Warsaw
Youth wing| Młoda Lewica (Young Left)
LGBT wing| Tęczowa Wiosna (Rainbow Spring)
Women's wing| Wiosna Kobiet (Women's Spring)
Ideology| Social democracy
Green politics
Progressivism
Pro-Europeanism
Social liberalism[1]
Anti-clericalism[2]
Political position| Centre-left[3]
National affiliation| The Left
European Parliament group| Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Colors|  Purple
Orange
Slogan| We are the Spring!
Anthem| Piosenka Wiosny (Song of Spring)[4]
Website
wiosnabiedronia.pl

* Politics of Poland
* Political parties
* Elections

Spring (Polish: Wiosna) was a social democratic and pro-European political party in Poland led by a former mayor of Słupsk, Robert Biedroń. It merged with Democratic Left Alliance and created New Left.

## History

[edit]

The party was founded on 3 February 2019 in Hala Torwar and ran in the 2019 European elections,[5] winning three seats.[6]

For the 2019 parliamentary election, the party formed a coalition with the Democratic Left Alliance and Razem, known as The Left, winning 19 seats in the Sejm.

The party was set to merge with the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) into a unitary party called the New Left in 2021. On 11 June 2021, the party's general assembly voted in favour of dissolving the party in order to merge with the SLD.[7] The merger was finished on 9 October 2021 via a unification congress.[8]

## Ideology

[edit]

### Platform

[edit]

The core ideology of the party revolved around issues such as women’s rights, equality, creating a better community, bringing the European Union closer to the citizens, civic participation, increasing green politics and animal rights, rights of disabled people, innovative education, better public transport, better healthcare and establishment of the Justice and Reconciliation Commission.[9]

The party proposed to introduce a minimum monthly pension at PLN 1,600 per month as well as raising the minimum wage to PLN 2,700 by 2020 and then PLN 3265 by 2022 per month. Another proposal was to introduce a new law that would set the minimum wage at 60% of the national monthly income average. Spring supports increasing wages of the teachers, and proposes to set the wage at PLN 3,500 per month for teachers that are just beginning their job. Spring also pushed for the abolition of ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) and KRUS (Agricultural Social Insurance Fund) and the consequent transferal of their competences to the tax administration. Yet another proposal was free access to the internet in the entire country. The party also pledged to increase disability benefit and to introduce a paid weekly holiday for carers of the disabled.

On the environment, the party leader Biedroń stressed the importance of fighting smog by closing all mines by 2035, departing from coal and switching to renewable sources of energy. Biedroń also stressed the importance of protecting animal rights and called for the creation of an office of the Advocate of Natural Rights. On education, Spring took the stance of making the education system more practical and less theory-based. The party also proposed to introduce obligatory anti-violence education and sex education in all types of schools, as well as doubling the number of hours during which English is taught in schools. Furthermore, the party wanted to remove religious education classes from schools. Spring was committed to deglomeration of civil servant offices from Warsaw to other smaller cities. On world view issues, Spring took a liberal stance by proposing to introduce civil partnerships for opposite-sex and same-sex couples as well as the legalisation of same-sex marriage, legalisation of abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, IVF funded by the state, total separation of church and state and abolition of the so-called Church Fund.[10] In a TV interview for TVN24, Biedroń stated that the cost of his party's programme will be 35 billion PLN.[11]

## Election Results

[edit]

### Presidential

[edit]

Election  | Candidate  | 1st round  | 2nd round

|
|
|

Votes  | %  | Votes  | %
2020 | Robert Biedroń | 432,129  | 2.2 (#6) |

### Sejm

[edit]

Election  | Votes  | %  | Seats  | +/–  | Government

|
|
|
|
|

2019 | 2,319,946  | 12.6 (#3) |

15 / 460

| New  | Opposition
As part of Democratic Left Alliance, which won 49 seats in total.

### European Parliament

[edit]

Election  | Votes  | %  | Seats  | +/–  | EP Group

|
|
|
|
|

2019 | 826,975  | 6.1 (#3) |

3 / 52

| New  | S&D

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Żakowski, Jacek. "Neoliberal 10 percent coalition".
2. ^ Klauziński, Sebastian (11 February 2019). "Kaczyński about Robert Biedroń Spring:"Furious anti-clericalism. It hurts here."". OKO.press. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
3. ^ Chapman, Annabelle (27 February 2019). "How the Spring party is reviving the Polish left". New Statesman. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
4. ^ "Piosenka Wiosny". wiosnabiedronia.pl. 3 September 2021.
5. ^ "Wiosna - partia Roberta Biedronia. 'Czas na nowy rozdział - wspólnie zmienimy Polskę!'". Wyborcza.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 3 February 2019.
6. ^ "Eurowybory 2019: Kto dostał się do Parlamentu Europejskiego?". www.gazetaprawna.pl (in Polish). 27 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019. "In English: "Eurovillage 2019: Who got into the European Parliament?""
7. ^ @KGawkowski (11 June 2021). "Coś się kończy, coś zaczyna!" (Tweet) - via Twitter.
8. ^ ""Łączy nas Polska". Kongres zjednoczeniowy Nowej Lewicy". Nowa Lewica (in Polish). 9 October 2021. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
9. ^ "Wiosna".
10. ^ "Plan partii Biedronia w punktach".
11. ^ "Biedroń już wie: "35 mld zł będą kosztowały wszystkie przedstawione przeze mnie propozycje". A podliczył już te w Słupsku?".

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wiosna.

* Official website

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