The first free parliamentary elections had given place the 4th June, 1989 to the crushing victory of the right-wing party " independent association of the trade unions Solidarity (NSZZ" Solidarnosc"). In November 1990, Lech Walesa wins the first presidential elections. After one year in fonction, the Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki resigned, but his party, the Democratic Union, won the legislative elections the following year.

The Parliament is dissolved in 1993, which gives place to new legislative elections. Winner of those elections, the alliance of the left is made up of the democratic left (SLD) and Polish Country Party (PSL). The new government of coalition is directed by W. Pawlak (PSL). Aleksander Kwasniewski, candidate of the Alliance of the democratic left (SLD), wins the presidential elections in 1995.

The legislative elections of 1997 saw the victory of the Electoral alliance of Solidarity (AWS), a coalition of forty parties of center-right, and of Union for Freedom (UW). The undertaken reforms (regional decentralization, reform of the education systems, retirement and health, restructuration of the iron and steel industry, carboniferous and metallurgical industries) by the Government of the new Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek were badly perceived by the population. In 2000, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Leszek Balcerowicz caused a serious political crisis by withdrawing ministers of UW, while the country was negotiating its entry into the EU.

In the presidential elections in 2000, the outgoing President Aleksander Kwasniewski was re-elected as of the first turn. The following year, the coalition SLD - UP - PSL won the legislative elections of 2001 and set up a government directed by the Prime Minister Leszek Miller. None of the two parties which had formed the previous government, the AWS and the Union of Freedom (UW) reached the electoral threshold. In 2002, the decrease of the popularity in the local elections obliged the coalition to form an alliance with the radical party Self-Defence (Samoobrona).

Legislative elections: representation in the Diet (Sejm) >>

The current government in Poland >>