Senate of Poland

The Senate (Polish: Senat) is the upper house of thePolish parliament, the lower house being the 'Sejm'.The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition andstretches back over 500 years, it was one of the firstconstituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europeand existed without hiatus until the dismemberment ofthe Polish state in 1795. After a brief period of exis-tence in the inter-war period the Senate was again abol-ished (by many accounts illegally) by the authorities ofthe People’s Republic of Poland, it was not re-establisheduntil the collapse of communism and rebirth of democ-racy in Poland in 1989. The Senate is based in Warsawand is located in a building which forms part of the SejmComplex on Ul. Wiejska, close to Three Crosses Squareand Ujazdow Castle. It consists of 100 senators electedby universal ballot and is headed by the Marshal of theSenate (Marszałek Senatu). The incumbent Marshal ofthe Senate is Bogdan Borusewicz.

1 Role

In line with Article 10, Paragraph 2, and Article 95 ofthe Polish Constitution of April 2, 1997, the Senate andthe Sejm exercises legislative power. The Senate is com-posed of 100 senators who are elected for a term of fouryears in general election in a direct vote by secret ballot.Alongside the Sejm, the President of the Polish Repub-lic, the Council of Ministers and all citizens of Poland,the Senate has the right to take legislative initiatives.If it is necessary for the Sejm and Senate to convenejointly as a general session of the National Assembly, thisjoint session will be chaired by the Marshal of the Sejmor by theMarshal of the Senate. The Senate is allowed 30days to examine any piece of draft legislation passed bythe Sejm, 14 days if a bill is considered to be urgent. Anybill submitted by the Sejm to the Senate may be adoptedby the latter without any amendments or amended or re-jected. Any resolution of the Senate, as a result of whicha bill is repealed or amended, is considered to be passedprovided it has not been rejected by the Sejm.However, for the state budget, the Senate has 20 days toexamine it. For amending the constitution, the Senatehas 60 days for analysis. If the constitution is amended,identical wording of the amendment must be approved byboth the Sejm and the Senate.The president cannot decide to stage a nationwide ref-erendum on matters of national importance unless he has

been given explicit permission to do so by the Senate. TheSenate is also empowered to examine any reports submit-ted by the Commissioner for the Protection of Citizens’Rights and the National Broadcasting Council. Otherthan its significant involvement in the legislative process,the Senate is required to grant its consent in the case ofappointment or removal of the President of the SupremeChamber of Control, the President of the Institute of Na-tional Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecutionof Crimes against the Polish Nation, the Commissionerfor Protection of Citizens’ Rights and the Ombudsmanfor Children and the General Inspector for Personal DataProtection.However, unlike the Sejm, the Senate has no role in pro-viding for oversight of the executive. The Senate cur-rently appoints one member of the National Broadcast-ing Council, two members of the Council of the Instituteof National Remembrance, two of its own senators to siton the National Judiciary Board and three members ofthe Monetary Policy Council of the National Bank. TheMarshal of the Senate and any 30 senators may also re-quest the Constitutional Tribunal to examine any act ofdomestic legislation or international agreement to checkthat it complies with the constitution, ratified interna-tional agreements, and other legislation.Since the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon, the Senatealso has the right to report issues about option and imple-mentation of European legislation in Poland to the centralauthorities of the European Union.

2 History

2.1 Kingdom and Commonwealth

The Senate can be traced back approximately five hun-dred years to a council of royal advisors. In the Nobles’Democracy, the Senate was a Privy council rather thanan upper chamber of the Sejm, and consisted of mem-bers of the royal cabinet and the royal court, togetherwith voivods, prefects and castellans (all appointed bythe king), and Catholic bishops (see Senatorial officesfor details). It was not until 1453 that the first mentionwas made of a two chamber legislative body in which the'lords’ of the kingdom were represented in a 'council oflords’, however, by 1493 the Sejm, made up of the King,Senate and Chamber of Envoys was finally established asa permanent legislative body for the Polish kingdom.[1]

1

2 2 HISTORY

A leaf from the Łaski Statute depicting the Polish Senate in 1503

In 1501 at Mielnik, senators attempted to force the soonto be crowned king Alexander I Jagiellon to devolve allroyal powers relating to the governing of the state to them.However, whilst Alexander first agreed, after his corona-tion he refused to affirm this privilege. Later the NihilNovi act of 1505 affirmed the right of both the Chamberof Envoys and Senate to propagate common law for thekingdom. In 1529 the Senate finally reached a decisionon its own composition; after the accession of Mazovia tothe Kingdom of Poland, the Senate became composed ofRoman Catholic diocesan bishops, provincial governors,lesser and greater castellans, ministers (grand chamber-lain, chancellor, deputy chancellors, grand treasurer andcourt Marshal), all of whom were appointed for life bythe king. At this time the competences of the Senate werealso laid down as pertaining to participation in legislation,foreign policy and the Sejm Court.

The 1661 session of the Senate in Jasna Góra

In 1537 the Senate followed a course of action whichwould have seen it become the most important institutionin protecting landowners’ rights and freedoms. However,this view was at odds with those of Sigismund I the Old

who believed that the Senate was becoming far too pow-erful. Resultantly, over the period of 1562-69, the Senatelost many of its powers and influence, eventually becom-ing subordinate to its formerly-equal companion body,the Chamber of Envoys. In 1569 a very important mile-stone was achieved when the Union of Lublin was signedand senators of the GrandDuchy of Lithuania were incor-porated into the Royal Senate of Poland in order to formthe Senate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Inaddition to this, senators from the autonomous Duchy ofPrussia, a fiefdom of the Polish King, were incorporatedafter having been absent since gaining autonomy in 1466.After these developments the Senate compromised: 142senators, 15 bishops, 35 provincial governors, 31 greatercastellans, 47 lesser castellans and 14 ministers.

In 1791, the "Great Sejm" or Four-Year Sejm of 1788-1792 andSenate adopt theMay 3rd Constitution at the Royal Castle inWar-saw

This old senate did not include the separate post of theSenateMarshal. The Senate’s sessions were presided overby the King, who was represented in person by the 'grandroyal marshal', a figure who could ultimately be describedas prime minister of the Kingdom. It was this marshalwho, on behalf of the king, presided over joint sessions(in which both the Senate and Chamber of Envoys tookpart) of the Sejm. Should the grand royal marshal byabsent, sessions were presided over by the court’s crownmarshal. Both of these two marshals sat in the Senateand, like other senators, enjoyed a lifelong appointmentby the King.[2]

The most important senator or 'president of the senate'was, at the time, the archbishop of Gniezno who, as Pri-mate of Poland and 'first Duke of the Kingdom' was con-sidered to hold the most senior state position below thatof the monarch. The archbishop presided over sessionsof the Senate during periods of the King’s absence. Inter-estingly the primate even had the right to convene 'secret'councils with the Senate without the King’s permissionand, should the need arise, even against his will. Duringperiods of interregnum the primate immediately became,by default, the interrex, (acting monarch), and thus couldconvene the Sejm at will.In 1573 the Senate received new rights under the Henri-

2.2 Partitions 3

cian Articles; these allowed the Senate to reprimand theking and instructed that the monarch must always be ac-companied by an advisory body of at least four senators.The Senate also ruled that the king must not arbitrarilypropagate new laws and that he must first consult withthe Senate before entering into marriage or agreeing tointer-state alliances. Under King Sigismund III of Polandand later his son, King Władysław IV, the Senate grew inimportance and king’s began to rule with the help of anadvisory body in which they placed most of their trust.This body was colloquially known as the 'Little Senate'and was made up of a number of highly trusted senatorsloyal to the king.

Unrealised (1765) plans for a new senate chamber at the RoyalCastle in Warsaw

In 1631 and 1632 the Senate first used its right to vetoconstitutional acts adopted by the Chamber of Envoys.This marks the first phase of the Senate’s demise as pow-erful nobles (known as the magnates) begin to exercisetheir power in the legislature. By 1669 the situation hadbecome so bad that landowners took to the streets and,angered by the magnates machinations during the earlierroyal election of Michael I, shot at passing senators. By1717 the king was obliged to implement recommenda-tions given by the senators-resident and by 1773 the car-dinal laws pertaining to the 'power of legislating for theRepublic in three estates’ had been passed and the Sen-ate had begun to hold joint debates with the Chamberof Envoys as a single 'united' Sejm. As a result, in 1775,the senators-resident or 'Little Senate' were abolished andwere replaced with a 'Permanent Council' of senators andenvoys headed by the King.In 1791 a particularly important development took placewhen the May 3rd Constitution removed the king fromthe three estate Sejm and transformed the previouslyequal House of Envoys and Senate into a modern parlia-ment comprising a lower house (Chamber of Envoys) andupper house (Senate). The Senate, however, lost muchof its right to legislate and, whilst still appointed by theKing, Senators were now to be chosen and put forwardby provincial legislative bodies known as Sejmiks.The Senate continued to exist until 1794, right up un-til the Kościuszko Uprising. In 1795 the third partition

of Poland took place, thus ending the first chapter of theSenate’s history.[3]

2.2 Partitions

During the existence of the Grand Duchy of Warsawand the Congress Kingdom of Poland the president ofthe Senate presided over the Senate; this officer of statewas appointed for life by the King, and was chosen fromamong the ordinary, secular senators. Additionally, inthe Congress Kingdom the Senate was on an equal foot-ing with the Chamber of Envoys, it was then composedof bishops, provincial governors, castellans and princesof the imperial blood. Despite this, the Senate of theCongress Kingdom had very little power and was largelya powerless, representative institution.

2.3 Second, people’s and third republics

The first session of the reestablished Senate in 1922 after its 127-year hiatus

In the newly re-established Poland after the First WorldWar, the March Constitution of 1921 set out a systemwhereby the Senate would be led by its Marshal andDeputy Marshals who were elected via a simple major-ity system by senators from among their ranks, they werethen expected to serve for the Senate’s term of office;the same rules was followed under the April Constitutionof 1935. In the Second Polish Republic, senators wereelected by universal ballot.In the 1921 constitution the Senate was established as theupper house of the Polish parliament, which from then onwas to be known as the 'National Assembly', with the pre-viously overarching term 'Sejm' being used to refer onlyto the lower house of parliament. The senate, whilst nothaving the right to introduce legislation, was entrustedwith the right of veto over the Sejm, the right to demandwritten explanations of policy decisions from governmentministers and a part to play in electing, along with theSejm, the President of the Republic in a unified secret bal-lot. At the time the Senate was composed of 111 senators,each of whomwas elected to represent, along with a num-

4 3 THE SENATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND TODAY

ber of others, one of Poland’s sub-national provinces. Theterm of office for senators amounted to five years. Duringthe inter-war period the senatemet in five convocations.[4]

A debate taking place in the Senate, December 9, 1930

After a failure in 1926 in to consolidate its powers andreceive the right to introduce legislation, the Senate con-tinued to function in its original 1921 role, until theMay Coup of 1935, after which the Senate became thesupreme legislative body of the republic and increasedits power at the expense of that of the Sejm. However,it was still largely subordinate to the president and, un-til the death of coup-instigator Józef Piłsudski, Chief ofState. After the invasion of Poland by German forces, on2 November 1939, the president of Poland Ignacy Moś-cicki ordered that the Senate and Sejm cease to operateand remain in recess until the end of the war, after whichelections were ordered to take place within 60 days af-ter the cessation of hostilities; this however, was never totake place.

The Senate Agricultural Committee, 1925

After a referendum organised in 1946 by the Communistregime, the Senate was abolished in the post-SecondWorld War People’s Republic of Poland. It is estimated,based on actual results obtained after the fall of Commu-nism in 1989, that should the referendum have been fairlyorganised, the real outcome would have shown that 73%of respondents were in favour of retaining the Senate inthe legislative system and the institution would not havebeen abolished. Indeed, in Kraków, where the oppositionmanaged to ensure a fair vote, the 'no' result relating tothe question as to whether people favoured the abolitionof the Senate was recorded as being 84%.

The Senate was only reestablished after the agreementstruck between the Communists and Solidarity in 1989.During the first election to the newly reestablished sen-ate in 1989 the future-president Lech Wałęsa's SolidarityMovement won 99 of the 100 seats being contested, withthe final seat being taken by an independent. This enor-mous size of this defeat greatly embarrassed the rulingPolish UnitedWorkers’ Party and hastened their exit frompower, thus paving the way for the establishment of ademocratic Poland and the foundation of the third repub-lic, in which the Senate was to become a permanent upperhouse of the new bicameral legislature.[5]

3 The Senate of the Republic ofPoland today

Vice Marshal Jan Wyrowiński

The term of office of a senator is four years. The Senatemay reject or amend the bills passed by the Sejm but anyrejection or amendment may still be overruled by an ab-solute majority vote in the Sejm. A joint session of theSenate and the Sejm is known as a National Assembly.Traditionally, the Senate takes particular care of Polonia,Polish communities outside Poland.Until 2010, senators were elected by a plurality bloc vot-ing method (rare internationally, but often used in U.S.local elections), where two or more candidates with the

5

highest support are elected from each electorate, and eachvoter selects as many candidates as there are seats (i.e.,there is no proportional representation). The exact num-ber of senators from each electorate was dependent on itspopulation and varied from two to four.Since 2010, senators are elected by the single member,one-round first-past-the-post voting method.

3.1 2011 election

Main article: Polish parliamentary election, 2011

4 Marshals of the Senate of the Re-public of Poland (after 1922)

5 Building

The Senate Building at the Sejm complex in Warsaw

The Senate building was originally an administrativebuilding of the Polish Sejm, which was built during theearly 1950s and eventually became the Sejm library.However, in 1989, with the re-establishment of the Sen-ate, the need for a permanent workplace for the new in-stitution became obvious. At the time only the Sejm’schamber was big enough to hold Senate debates, so, asa compromise the Senate made temporary use of theSejm chamber whilst plans for a new Senate building weredrawn up. In the meantime the senate’s administrative of-fices and facilities for senators were moved into BohdanPniewski’s 1950s east wing of the Sejm complex.It eventually became above that the system of alternat-ing with the Sejm in using the latter’s debating chamberwas becoming more and more problematic, and so, af-ter another 18 months, during which the Senate madeuse of the Hall of Columns in the Sejm, work on thenew Senate chamber finally began. The project revolvedaround a plan designed by architects Andrzej and BarbaraKaliszewski and Bohdan Napieralski, which would see

The northern facade of the Senate’s east wing administrativeblock, Sejm gardens and the pavilion, which caps the Sejm’s newbelow-ground administrative offices

three conference rooms on the first floor of what is nowthe Senate building combined to make one usable space,whilst not changing the external elevations of the build-ing or significantly changing its interior style or charac-ter. Decorated in a scheme close to that of Pniewski’s,which utilises a great number of soft shades of white andgrey, the Senate chamber blends well with the rest of itsarchitectural surroundings. The furniture for the cham-ber, much of which is upholstered in blueish-grey mate-rial was specially designed for the Senate’s use and in-corporates many design features characteristic of 1950sPolish modernism.

The iconic spiral staircase in the Senate building’s main hall

Whilst the Senate chamber does have one elevation incor-porating large windows, which look out into the Sejm gar-

6 8 EXTERNAL LINKS

dens, the specially-designed curtain, which was designedto cover them must always be drawn during debates andit is, in fact, rare to ever see it open. The necessity toclose the curtains during debates exists to stop the sun’sglare from distracting or disturbing senators during ple-nary sessions. Behind the presidium, the back of whichfaces the glazed elevation, hangs a large copy of the Coatof Arms of Poland. On either side of the presidium thereare places available for government advisors and inde-pendent experts who may be required to take part in de-bates, whilst at the back, around the edge of the chamberthere are a small number of places reserved for the pub-lic. There is also a special space reserved for the Presidentof Poland, over which hangs an embroidered copy of thepresidential jack.The hall, which provides entrance to the Senate chamberretains, despite renovation in the early 1990s, its origi-nal Pniewski architectural features and now serves as ameetings place for senators and their staff before and be-tween debates. In the centre of this same hall stands aniconic spiral staircase, which has become a symbol of themodern Polish Senate; indeed the central pylon of thisstaircase is decorated with a marble plaque depicting theSenate’s traditional emblem, the stylised white eagle in-tertwined with an 'S'. To the right of the hall the SenateMarshal’s office is to be found, along with those of hissecretariat and chief of staff. A large reception room alsoadjoins the hall, and it is in this room that the large oilpainting “the Polish Legation and Walezjusz” by TeodorAxentowicz hangs. To the left of the hall is a small foyerfor the use of senators and in which hang portraits of allthe past marshals of the senate.The lower floors of the Senate house the administrativeoffices of the 'Senate Chancellery' whilst others are usedby various legislative experts.

6 See also

• Sejm

• Politics of Poland

• Senate

• Electoral districts of Poland (1935 - 1939)

7 References[1] http://www.senat.gov.pl/o-senacie/z-dziejow-senatu/

historia-senatu/

[2] http://www.senat.gov.pl/o-senacie/z-dziejow-senatu/historia-senatu/

[3] http://www.senat.gov.pl/o-senacie/z-dziejow-senatu/historia-senatu/

[4] http://www.senat.gov.pl/o-senacie/z-dziejow-senatu/historia-senatu/

[5] http://www.senat.gov.pl/o-senacie/z-dziejow-senatu/historia-senatu/

[6] Polish State Electoral Commission: Results for electionsto the Sejm and Senate, 2011

[7] News of the formation of PJN in the Sejm

8 External links• Official website

Coordinates: 52°13′32″N 21°01′48″E / 52.2256°N21.0300°E

7

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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