Talk:Poland

Can somebody change type of government of Poland from semi-presidental, to mixed, because Poland has mixed system, it cannot be clearly attributed to the parliamentary system or to the semi-presidential system 83.11.87.78 (talk) 13:19, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

This. In fact I've checked the edit history and this page listed Poland as a Unitary parliamentary republic for YEARS. It was only changed exactly 1 yr ago and stayed that way due to edit-warring and/or conspiracy, I've just found! Mrgoodboss (talk) 05:06, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

This should have never been changed. Youlol7331x (talk) 21:27, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

I've made a new topic focusing this discussion at Poland is a parliamentary republic Mrgoodboss (talk) 05:10, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

On the Polish page it obviously remains a parliamentary republic and nothing has changed in the country in that regard. That to me seems like someone trying to push their political agenda and disinformation on a site that should remain purely informational and based on facts. Youlol7331x (talk) 21:38, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

The information about GDP, GDP per capita and GDP PPP may be updated https://data.imf.org/en/Data-Explorer?datasetUrn=IMF.RES:WEO(9.0.0) Youlol7331x (talk) 15:22, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

There already are new GDP estimates for 2026 available. Youlol7331x (talk) 21:29, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @NeonFor:, I saw that in one of the edit summaries you mentioned that there are sections in this article where images should be updated or replaced. Can you please identify these? Merangs (talk) 18:07, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

@PJK 1993:, is there a better representation of Warsaw for the Demographics section? The image you added is blurry and cropped, even though it's in the Warsaw page. Also, we are missing Gdańsk from being mentioned/imaged in the article, and it is an important metropolitan and port hub. Merangs (talk) 19:48, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello @PJK 1993:? Merangs (talk) 12:32, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

User:Svito3 Did you have any personal agenda, when you changed Poland's political system from the established long-standing consensus of it being parliamentary to semi-presidential, pretending like Ukraine is in any way similar to Poland? Ukraine is well-known as a semi-presidential system, whereas in Poland the power of the president is incomparably weaker, and the power of the prime minister incomparably greater. The Prime Minister sets policy, appoints ministers, the president is but a stop-gap and figurehead. A veto power does not a semi-presidential system make, when you look at actual such systems like in France or Ukraine, you'll see that there politics revolves around the President, he sets policy and appoints government ministers and the prime ministers & so on (of course the parliament elected in separate parliamentary elections has to approve the President's propositions in such a system).

I'm totally befuddled why you would liken Poland to Ukraine in this regard. In any regard! Mrgoodboss (talk) 05:07, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

That should be changed immediately. It's utterly false and misleading. Youlol7331x (talk) 21:26, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

@Merangs: @Moxy:@Polska-PL: Revert war is discourged in WIkipedia. Please seek consensus hhere, in talk page. --Altenmann >talk 17:56, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

The latest study conducted by CBOS (a government research institute) presents new data on religion in Poland for 2024, the source is below (page 7 of 8, figure no. 4): https://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2024/K_050_24.PDF In short:

- Catholicism (Roman Catholic Church) - 88.8% - Other Catholic rite - 0.2% - Orthodox Christianity - 0.5% - Protestantism and Churches of the Protestant tradition - 0.4% - Other Christian denomination, Christianity in general - 0.5% - Jehovah's Witnesses - 0.5% - Other religion, other denomination, other Church - 0.1% - I do not belong to any denomination - 7.3% - Refusal to answer - 1.8% ~2026-58603-0 (talk) 13:28, 27 January 2026 (UTC)

The redirect Polland has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 February 11 § Polland until a consensus is reached. Mathguy2718 (talk) 03:53, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Is Poland a parliamentary, or semi-presidential republic? This Wikipedia article simply does not currently state what most reliable sources say.
I'm not going to get into speculations about why it could or could not be classified as semi-presidential. that would be original research

Significant sources clearly state Poland is a parliamentary republic examples:
https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/eu-countries/poland_en
https://portal.cor.europa.eu/divisionpowers/Pages/Poland.aspx
https://www.gov.pl/web/civilservice/basic-information-about-poland
https://web.archive.org/web/20260118165010/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/poland/#government
https://ec-europa-eu.libguides.com/country-knowledge-poland/introduction
https://www.welmec.org/legal-metrology-information/country-information/country/poland
https://civitas.org.uk/content/files/MS.10.Poland.pdf

And the Constitution of Poland itself

Wikipedia's core principle is verifiability, so some speculative arguments that Poland potentially could be considered a semi-presidential republic are irrelevant, as that would constitute original research. Information about the fact that Poland's form of government does indeed hold some semi-presidential characteristics should be delegated to an appropriate section of the article, certainly not to the info-box and the introduction section of the article.

The currently cited sources clearly are not the consensus, they are uncommon, opinions, or just wrong. One that I just removed (CIA Factbook) was outright contradicting the claim the article currently makes, another was the Polish Constitution which also didn't make claim in support of the statement.

Some of the pages affected:
Poland, List of countries by system of government(+pages that excerpt it), Politics of Poland, commons:File:Forms_of_government.svg, and probably a few more.

I propose that the statement in the article is corrected to say "parliamentary republic", and move the speculations to an appropriate section of the article that talks about the forms of government and describes eg. the presidential veto powers.
--wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 00:55, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Considering that the majority of sources, including Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (which is probably the most relevant source for the system of government in Poland), the article should definitely put main emphasis on Poland being a parliamentary republic.

It is stated thrice throughout the article that Poland is a semi-presidential republic, including the table at the top. Due to the clear picture given by the sources, the table should obviously say "parliamentary republic". The body of the article needs correction, too, although mentions of an opposing viewpoint should be left in, because they clearly hold some weight due to the current sources claiming Poland to be a semi-presidential republic. See: WP:WEIGHT. Casual board gamer (talk) 06:48, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

It is possible that Poland's constitution uses the words "parliamentary republic" to describe something that nobody now really calls by those words (except that constitution). If we look at how other countries are described, Wikipedia does not privilege what a country says about itself - otherwise, every country with a dictator would be called a democracy! Unlike the dictators, Poland is an honest country with a legitimate constitution, but that doesn't mean we can just uncritically copy what a country's constitution says. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 16:04, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Yes, however most sources do indeed call it "parliamentary republic". You'd really need to go out of your way to find anyone attempting to call it a semi-presidential republic.

Showing these theories front-and-centre would be undue weight --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 16:44, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3, you have reverted my edits and accused me of POV-pushing. I would like you to participate in this discussion especially since It seems you're the one who is pushing the "semi-presidential" version of the article. --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 18:35, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Most reliable sources are already used on the page that precisely go into which systems are presidential, semi-presidential, and parliamentary in detail. None of sources you provided do that.

There were plenty of exactly this discussion by Polish users that WP:BRIGADE this topic. Please check previous discussions before starting same one with same arguments. Svito3 (talk) 18:37, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

That's not true, the references in favour of "semi-presidential" are very clearly WP:UNDUE and speculative. They don't reflect the majority sources.

In fact some of the sources in the original version of the article outright contradict the previous statement in the article.

I also do not appreciate your accusations of brigading --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 18:54, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3: What exactly do you oppose in the edit that you reverted? Your arguments don't seem to be backed in any of Wikipedia's policies. The version of the article you reverted to places undue weight on a fringe view not shared by the majority of the sources. It's not relevant that my sources don't go super deep into detail, they don't need to. The point of view of the sources that are used to support the "semi-presidential" classification are not shared by most sources, and should not be used to completely disregard the primary source that is the Polish Constitution and the majority of secondary sources. --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 23:51, 16 February 2026 (UTC)

Polish constitution isn't a source for the claim itself that "Poland is parliamentary republic" because such text is simply not in the text of the constitution. To make such claim based on Polish constitution text is original research as you have to cross-check Polish constitution with definition of "semi-presidential system" or "parliamentary system" found in another reliable secondary source(s).

Contention is in which sources are reliable, per WP:SOURCE. Sources claiming Poland is parliamentary republic are exclusively "basic country information pages", not scientific papers on governing systems (which is the subject of this discussion), how they differ and which countries belong to which system. Svito3 (talk) 11:04, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3: Published scientific papers on governing systems that share this view do indeed exist, for example:
Rationalized parliamentarism a là polonaise – a reflection from the perspective of twenty years of the Constitution of 1997 - (2017) Patyra Sławomir

The author outright states that 2 competing ideas were proposed, a French-style semi-presidential model and a parliamentary one with German-style chancellor-y elements, with the latter one eventually being chosen.

W projektach konstytucji, skierowanych do Komisji Konstytucyjnej Zgromadzenia Narodowego w latach 1993–1994 zderzyły się dwie, odmienne koncepcje modelu egzekutywy: jedna, oparta na idei budowania relacji pomiędzy prezydentem a rządem w oparciu o wzorce modelu semiprezydenckiego, druga zaś nawiązująca do rozwiązań charakterystycznych dla modelu kanclerskiego. Ostatecznie, Komisja Konstytucyjna, a w ślad za nią Zgromadzenie Narodowe przesądziły o przyjęciu w Konstytucji z 2 kwietnia 1997 r. modelu dualistycznej egzekutywy, charakterystycznej dla systemu rządów parlamentarnych, jednakże z przewagą konstrukcji typowych dla niemieckiego kancleryzmu. Znalazło to szczególny wyraz w odniesieniu do wyeksponowania roli rządu w zakresie prowadzenia polityki państwa i parlamentarnej odpowiedzialności Rady Ministrów za jej prowadzenie.

So what I'm saying, it's not true that only Sources claiming Poland is parliamentary republic are exclusively "basic country information pages" --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 17:49, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

"dualistycznej egzekutywy" translates to dual executive system, which is another term for semi-presidential system. Follow wikilink and see for yourself. -- Svito3 (talk) 18:48, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

No. The text clearly clarifies right after that the executive system in Poland is found in parliamentary systems and gravitates towards the German one:

[. . .] dualistycznej egzekutywy, charakterystycznej dla systemu rządów parlamentarnych, jednakże z przewagą konstrukcji typowych dla niemieckiego kancleryzmu.

 

In my opinion, enough arguments for Poland being a parliamentary republic were given to include that in the article and give it due weight. It is probably the best to mention both systems, since there is currently no consensus strong enough to leave just one, no matter which one would it be. Casual board gamer (talk) 19:25, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3: "dualistyczna egzekutywa" doesn't exactly translate to English "dual executive system".

In how this term is understood in Polish, it refers to a parliamentary-cabinet system^{(pl.wikipedia)} which is not a semi-presidential system

Clearly this is the meaning that the author intended as directly after "modelu dualistycznej egzekutywy" he continued after a comma "charakterystycznej dla systemu rządów parlamentarnych" --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 19:28, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

I don't think it's clear at all. Polish terms seem original and classification system seems different from what is used on English Wikipedia. -- Svito3 (talk) 20:25, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure how feasible this is, but could it be a potential solution to write something along the lines of: "Poland is a de jure parliamentary republic, but de facto functions like a semi-presidential republic, and is identified as one by some scholars"? Kinda like how we currently handle Austria. I think we did something like this before for Poland, but it was eventually removed. LVDP01 (talk) 07:38, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

I would oppose such classification due to WP:UNDUE and WP:EXCEPTIONAL --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 19:37, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Though it could be appropriate to mention lower in the article somewhere that "under some definitions Poland might be classified as semi-presidential due to having a president elected directly by the population rather than by parliament". --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 13:08, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Something to add - Note that researchers don't exactly agree on the definition of what "semi-presidential system" even means.

The most broad definition is as broad as qualifying all parliamentary republics with a directly elected president as being semi-presidential.
This definition classifies even a country such as Ireland as semi-presidential (!!!) (and indeed, for example researcher Robert Elgie who uses this classification does qualify them this way [ page 16])

But clearly this view is not one used by Wikipedia in articles such as List of countries by system of government or Semi-presidential system, a narrower definition is used instead. wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 02:32, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

For more about this see: Talk:Semi-presidential_system#definition_of_semi-presidential_used_for_this_and_related_articles,_and_country_pages_infobox_classification wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 02:33, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Another good source on the topic: Ustrój polityczny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej

p.278

Przyjęty w Konstytucji z 1997 r. system rządów (podobnie jak stosowany w latach 1918–1935) określa się powszechnie w polskiej literaturze jako system parlamentarny.

p.211 [below part is about 1997 constitution, Mk = Mała konstytycja (1992)]

znikają z Konstytucji bezpowrotnie rozwiązania mogące świadczyć niegdyś w Mk o zbliżaniu się jej w jakimś stopniu do modelu semiprezydenckiego (z wyjątkiem może powszechnego sposobu wyboru Prezydenta), o czym będzie jeszcze mowa. To równocześnie pozwala na stwierdzenie odrzucenia przez ustrojodawcę dopuszczalności oscylowania w praktyce nowego ustroju ku jakimś formom systemu półprezydenckiego.

---

Also @Svito3 this source backs up what I said earlier about "dualistyczna egzekutywa" not being synonymous with semi-presidential system, instead being part of what could be defined as parliamentary-cabinet system.
p.210 "To oznacza, że wprawdzie Prezydent sytuowany jest w Konstytucji z 1997 r. jako nadal element dualistycznej egzekutywy (wraz z Radą Ministrów)," [...] p.211 "I tak należy sądzić, że promuje ona rozwiązania właściwe bardziej systemowi parlamentarnemu z ciążeniem ku systemowi parlamentarno-gabinetowemu"
--wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 22:01, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

I would like to add some critique to the current sources listed in the article:

1. "Semi-Presidentialism-Duverger's Concept — A New Political System Model"
   This source predates the current Polish constitution, it's astounding that it's even being used as a reference.
2. "Semi-Presidential Systems: Dual Executive and Mixed Authority Patterns"
   Author of this source is not even so confident about their claim, he offhandedly mentions Poland, Mongolia, and Senegal as semi-presidential due to a presidential veto, but in citation ²⁵ he says "Some parliamentary systems, such as in the Czech Republic and Greece, provide similar vetoes to their unelected presidents." without drawing any reason for the difference in his classification, and then admits "The study of presidents in parliamentary systems has been relatively neglected".
3. "Semi-Presidential Systems: Dual Executive And Mixed Authority Patterns"
   This one is just a different release of the exact same paper - again astounding that it's used as a citation when it's basically just a duplicate. The part mentioning Poland is the exact same except due to changes earlier in the paper, the above-mentioned citation ²⁵ is now citation ²³.
4. "Semi-Presidentialism and Democratisation in Poland"
   (better link) The author in this work seems to classify any country with a directly elected president as semi-presidential. They even explicitly mention that "The 1997 constitution reduced the president’s power to the benefit of the prime minister".

--wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 19:36, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

What about the following sources, which also support a semi-presidential system in Poland? Could they be used instead, or are they similarly flawed?

• Determinants of the Presidential Veto in a Semi-presidential System: Empirical Insights from Poland, by Anna Lewczuk of the University of Warsaw
• POLAND PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS 2019 – ODIHR NEEDS ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT, by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
• Local and regional democracy in Poland, by the Council of Europe
• A Primer on the Government and Politics of Poland, by Richard J. Hunter Jr. of Seton Hall University
• The role and power of the Polish president, by TVP World
• A Constitutional Settlement Is Poland’s Only Hope, by Maciej Kisilowski (Central European University in Vienna) and Anna Wojciuk (University of Warsaw)

LVDP01 (talk) 19:51, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

A lot of these only mention it in passing and are not going in depth about it, Svito3 in the section above argues that per WP:SOURCE for this claim you need "scientific papers on governing systems". Also some here you linked I believe simply quoted Wikipedia --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 20:08, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

1. I don't see problem with it predating Polish constitution. It's best source we have on governing systems.

2. I don't see how that's relevant considering semi-presidential system is defined on (page 2) by three features:

• A president who is popularly elected;
• The president has considerable constitutional authority;
• There exists also a prime minister and cabinet, subject to the confidence of the assembly majority.

3. I removed duplicate from the page as well as CIA source previously, but it was reverted by another user, and I didn't want to escalate.

4. You intentionally cut off second part of same sentence from your quote:

• The 1997 constitution reduced the president’s power to the benefit of the prime minister but most importantly it confirmed the semi-presidential system in Poland.

Svito3 (talk) 20:16, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3:

1. How can the source speak about the Polish Constitution if it predates that very constitution? unless you are claiming that it's a WP:SYNTH?

2. You can't WP:SYNTH and WP:OR like that.

4. I didn't mean to mislead, I did state that the author classified Poland as a semi-presidential republic, but they seem to state any country with a directly elected president as such.

--wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 20:29, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

1. It explains classification system, but it can be removed as there is better source indeed.

2. Document is about semi-presidential systems. I don't see fault in not going in detail about every parliamentary system. Without reading definition of semi-presidential system you can't understand that semi-presidential systems by definition have popularly elected president.

4. I don't see where it says so. It's probably not there. Svito3 (talk) 21:18, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3:

1. & 2. That's still WP:COMBINE & WP:SYNTH and cannot be used as a reference to the claim in this article.

4. That was to my understanding the primary reason for this classification for that author; Quote: "One method of democratising the presidency would be direct election, thereby establishing semi-presidentialism. Democratisation could also have proceeded by simply democratising the parliament, which could then provide democratic legitimacy for a new president elected by its members. Another option would have been to simply abolish the presidency."

This to my understanding means that the author believes Poland to be semi-presidental because of the direct election of the president, therefore (according to him) it wouldn't be so if it was the members of the parliament who elected him instead (or if the office was removed completely)

and going back to my argument, that's a rather strange way of categorising it, since the exact same thing happens in Czechia, Slovakia, Moldova, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc. yet these countries are (rightfully) not classified as semi-presidential

--wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 21:47, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Democratizing powerful presidency would make system semi-presidential. Svito3 (talk) 23:05, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

the "would" in your claim is not true; it could potentially, or could've turned into it something else. A whole new constitution was introduced in 1997. --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 00:56, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

If you read whole source or even first few pages it's clear it's about Poland specifically, it even says so in the title. It doesn't make any such claim:

• "The author in this work seems to classify any country with a directly elected president as semi-presidential."

As for 1997 constitution, of course source has information about that too, but you haven't even skimmed the article to know what information it contains.

If you don't have time or mental capacity to read the source, maybe reconsider going on offensive against sources you haven't read and don't understand even parts that you quote. Svito3 (talk) 03:15, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3 I know the text is about Poland, i never claimed it's not. Im saying your previous reply is false.
I also don't appreciate your rude accusation of me "not having the mental capacity to read the source".

The author clearly uses the definition that if the president is directly elected, and otherwise the system is parliamentary, then the system is semi-presidential. It's obviously clear from the text, such as how they talk about a situation when the president is not elected directly (following round table talk agreements), but by the Zgromadzenie Narodowe (Sejm+Senate):

"The agreement created a potentially powerful presidency to be elected by a joint sitting of the houses of parliament (Salmonowicz 1989, pp. 10-11). Thus, the deal established a dual executive, rather than semi-presidentialism." (quote about 1989 presidential election under a different system from today)

(which also pointing out according to this author, semi-presidentialism is different from a dual executive, unlike what you said earlier. That's because the only criteria this author uses for considering a country as having a semi-presidential system is a directly elected president, with an otherwise parliamentary system.)

Another proof of this is the works he cited, that being Robert Elgie's Semipresidentialism in Europe, who proposes the criterium for semi-presidentialism as "A semi-presidential regime may be defined as the situation where a popularly-elected fixed-term president exists alongside a prime minister and cabinet who are responsible to parliament."

Clearly this is not the definition used on Wikipedia, as Elgie also classifies Ireland, Croatia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, etc. as semi-presidential (even directly listing them as examples), this is also not a common view, and not the one used so far by Wikipedia. See more about the multiple definitions

--wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 11:08, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

@Svito3 Do you still object to me making the change in the article? As I cannot really see any good argument for keeping the current version. --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 23:05, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

I'm gonna make the changes then, as the only person objecting seems to no longer reply, and I do believe I 'advertised' the change sufficiently on various noticeboards for anyone else wishing to object to do so. --wojtekpolska^{₁₀₁₃ [talk page]} 08:29, 28 February 2026 (UTC)