New parties in the Polish party system 2011-2018 : the Palikot Movement, Kukiz15 and the Modern Party of Ryszard Petru as genuinely new parties?

The Polish party system has experienced several major changes since 1989. The last important change occurred in 2001, when two new parties were formed - the Law and Justice and the Civic Platform - which have since dominated the party competition in Poland and have been accused of almost completely blocking the system. However, since 2011, several new parties have emerged, claiming to represent a new quality in Polish politics. The subject of the analysis includes all those parties that entered the Polish parliament for the first time after the 2011 (the Palikot Movement) and 2015 elections (Kukiz'15, the Modern Party of Ryszard Petru). In order to assess their degree of novelty, the interval index of party congruence/novelty as proposed by Sikk and Köker is used. The parties chosen are analyzed in terms of their organization, leadership and candidate selection. Comparing these parties, we show the highest level of novelty in the case of the Modern Party, followed by Kukiz'15, with the Palikot Movement at the end. The other important conclusion concerns the phenomenon of bipolarity in Polish politics, which is related to the long-lasting rivalry between the Law and Justice and the Civic Platform parties, which prevents new parties from gaining political relevance. The emergence of three parties able to gain parliamentary seats shows that this bipolarity is not as 'rigid' as it may be perceived, hence new entrants into Polish politics are still possible.