Ethnoregional groups and national minorities in Poland and their political representations

Despite the fact that Poland’s population is overwhelmingly homogeneous as regards language, culture and identity, there are some communities differing from the Polish “standard”. These communities can be divided into three categories from the point of view of their legal status: national minorities, ethnic groups and ethoregional groups. The first are communities having their national (kin) states abroad, e.g. Germans, Lithuanians (provided that they are Polish citizens and these communities live in Poland “traditionally”), the second are communities without a state abroad, like Lemkos (Ruthenians), Karaims, etc, the third are people speaking a “regional language”, so far these are only Kashubians. Another regional group – Silesians – are subject of political debates concerning their status as a minority, a community speaking a regional language or as “ordinary Poles”. Each community has a political representation (often more than one) in a form of political party of social association. Some of them stand for election directly, like the biggest organisation of Silesian ethnoregionalism “Movement for Silesian Autonomy” (RAS) or parties of German minority, others, like the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association, include their candidates on lists of other parties. Representatives of minorities and ethnoregional groups are present mostly at local (commune) level, sometimes at regional level (e.g. RAS in the Silesian voivodship as a minority group), one minority – German – is presented also at the central level in the parliament (by 1-4 MPs). The latter is possible due to the election privilege for national minorities due to which they don’t need to exceed the 5% threshold to enter the parliament. These communities and their political representations differ as regards their goals, strength, mobilisation etc.