32 years ago, Jaroslaw Kaczynski cried out: "It's time for change." At that time, the Porozumienie Centrum was founded. It took another more than two decades for some of its demands to be realized.

• When we began the process of rebuilding an independent state, democracy and a free economy in 1989, most were convinced that our dreams had come true, we had a sovereign state, we were free. However, the shape of democracy that was built from the beginning did not satisfy many of us. The economic sphere was growing with pathologies, crime was on the rise, people increasingly felt insecure before losing their jobs. The lack of order, the growing group of the newly privileged were compounded by the helplessness of state power. Integrity was losing, pathologies were winning. The law was losing," Marek Kuchcinski recalls the times of the great turning point not only of decades, but also of Polish history, identity.

It is difficult today to assess those times unequivocally. When we look at them from the perspective of experiences gathered over the years, we see the extent of the evil. Yes, the evil that was rolling over the country, which was seemingly freeing itself from the communist tentacles of the liquidated PZPR. Enthusiasm that the Party, which held all the political, economic, cultural strings in its hands, had been defeated was sincere. Many people dreamed that things only had to get better. Unfortunately, better was not for everyone. Just as not everyone who promised change kept their word.

This is well seen, among other things, when we take an honest look at the genesis of the Agreement of the Center. Its main architect was Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Even then he accurately diagnosed the political reality. The fragmented Solidarity party, divided into parties, factions and coteries, received great credit for the trust of the Poles. This was already evident during the elections to the Contract Sejm, the concessionary elections of 1989. The PZPR trembled before the nation's wrath, but was just counting on an internal split. Only that it was much more important to resent the communist government than to really know what values the freedom party would bring with it to the Sejm. Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaking and writing about values at the time was not listened to carefully. However, he knew that real power was needed to really change Poland. Among other things, this is why he got involved in the campaign to support Lech Walesa in the presidential election. From today's perspective, this move is reproached to Kaczynski, from then: Walesa was the only widely accepted candidate on the side of Solidarity. With all his flaws, his baggage of accusations, he could have taken his place after Wojciech Jaruzelski. Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski understood this and took on a challenge that was actually difficult for them personally. To see it more fully, however, one must understand precisely what the Porozumienie Centrum was. It was formed on May 12, 1990. At a special press conference, in the Grand Theater building, together with a group of activists, Kaczynski announced the Declaration of the Agreement of the Center. "On that day everything was about to change," - wrote the current head of the Law and Justice Party in his book, and the fact that the PC evolved into the Law and Justice Party is a testament to Jaroslaw Kaczynski's enormous consistency.

The PC was formed in the hope that it would be the guarantor of the changes promised by Walesa. The agreement was built on two pillars, political and organizational efficiency and values. According to Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski, only an efficient party with a strong moral backbone could be a guarantee for the reconstruction of the state.

• We created the movement on a foundation of immutable, hierarchically ordered principles. We believed that only they could most fully express the expectations of all who pride themselves on belonging to the Latin culture of Europe. So there was no place in the Covenant of the Center for the subordination of the citizen to economics, to liberalism based solely on reason, because then everything can depend on changing views, can be relativized: today reason will give us one view, tomorrow a completely different one. And the homage to collective thinking, to some cosmopolitan, impersonal vision, and the recognition of the state as the goal of action threatens what we have been experiencing for the last fifty years," Marek Kuchcinski recalls.

It is worth pointing out at this point that this was a party that was actually based on local structures, so creating a program, changing based on what people in smaller towns need, not just in Warsaw. On July 23, 1990, that is, two months after the declaration, the Regional Office of the Agreement of the Center was established in Przemyśl. The Bureau consisted of Jacek Borzęcki, Bogusław Dawnis, Zygmunt Grzesiak, Wojciech Kalinowski, Marek Kuchciński, Wojciech Mikula, Paweł Niemkiewicz, Robert Rybotycki, Andrzej Wyczawski.

• Porozumienie Centrum should, transform itself into a modern party, uniting apolitical currents of a democratic, popular and liberal-conservative nature; which are united by the Christian hierarchy of values. This should be reflected in the name Christian-Democratic Agreement of the Center," the signatories wrote in the introduction to the program resolution.

It is fascinating to read this document. Especially in view of the current changes. Among the 15 points, there appeared one such: "Restructure the insurance system in a comprehensive manner. Verify the award decisions issued to people formerly employed in the apparatus of communist power. Many of these 'pensioners' are enjoying a bargain in health, working in the private sector of the economy or commerce, multiplying their monetary resources, or outright pursuing a parasitic life."

It was only when Law and Justice came to power on its own, and Marek Kuchcinski was the Speaker of the Sejm, that a similar resolution could be passed to take away privileges from functionaries of the communist power apparatus.

Why was this unrealistic before? This process is well illustrated by the early history of the PC, which we can tell through the prism of local structures in Subcarpathia. In February 1991, the Regional Office of the Covenant of the Center in Przemyśl established the Civic Committee for Free Elections. It issued an appeal to the Civic Committees and the Przemyśl Solidarity movement to support the initiative. Zygmunt Grzesiak and Boguslaw Dawnis signed on behalf of the regional PC office. The coalition of Civic Committees of Jaroslaw and Przemysl was represented by Marek Kuchcinski and Bronislaw Niemkiewicz. As we could read earlier, the PC had a clear program. There was room in it for the economy, ecology, agriculture, health care, changes in the law of cultural institutions and a demand for vetting. In the first completely free elections in 1991, Porozumienie Centrum won 44 parliamentary seats. It later supported Jan Olszewski's government. In May 1992, the Przemyśl PC calls for an extension of the Polish Sejm's Resolution on the disclosure of SB and UB agents. It wants to make public "the full list of confidants holding responsible positions in educational institutions, state institutions, workplaces and those heading political, social, cultural organizations and the mass media."

The real vetting, however, did not take place. Olszewski's government fell. Walesa sided with the partisans who did not want a full settlement. The return to power of post-communist forces began.

For the next few years, the Accord of the Center was a viable opposition to left-liberal changes that distracted the government from the country's real problems. PC politicians remained true to their principles. However, the alliances that allowed PC politicians to return to power as part of the AWS-led camp provided no guarantee of real systemic change in the country.

• The best prescription yet for uniting the forces of the Polish center and right was presented by Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski at the beginning of the 21st century. They responded to the unbearable injustice and lack of order in Poland with the project of a great party, whose name would literally answer the question of what Poles needed. Law and Justice was formed in early 2001 on the wave of popularity gained by Lech Kaczynski. He served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Solidarity Electoral Action government. The Law and Justice Party, initially led by Lech Kaczynski, attracted people from the circles of the AWS, Porozumienie Centrum, the Conservative and People's Party, the Christian National Union, the KPN, peasant organizations and the Polish Reconstruction Movement. Importantly: the number of people who previously did not belong to any political party grew rapidly. Christian Democrats and National Democrats together in the Piłsudski trend with a conservative identity. We did not create our program in an eclectic sense, but used elements to build a new quality. Jaroslaw Kaczynski has been the party's chairman since 2003. At the Second Law and Justice Congress in Lodz, in June 2006, he was re-elected party chairman," Marek Kuchcinski recalls those days.

So this story comes full circle. It is only now that the demands that so inflamed people in the 1990s are being realized. Now regions like the Podkarpacie, through their representatives in the authorities of the Law and Justice Party and in the Sejm, can influence political changes in the country. The Agreement of the Center was the structural beginning of the...

Marta Olejnik