Od PZPR do SLD
From PZPR to SLD

Transformations of the Image of the Post-communist Party in 1989–1993 – the Language of Election Campaigns

Author(s): Magdalena Kukulak
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Czech Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: election campaign; language of politics; post-communists; political metaphor; slogan
Summary/Abstract: The democratic changes in Poland in 1989 marked the beginning of fair competition between political parties, and thus the emergence of the previously absent language of advertising in Polish politics. On this ground, the former monopolist – the communist Polish United Workers’ Party, and its heir, the Democratic Left Alliance consisting of the minor post-communist and newly formed parties, had to find their own place. The article describes how in the linguistic field it was possible to make such credible changes from the Newspeak straight from the communist times of the Polish People’s Republic to the modern campaign language (a manifestation of which is still considered one of the best election slogans: „Your heart is on the left side”) that the victory for post-communist formations was possible in the parliamentary elections already in 1993, and made them credible as an equal player on the Polish political scene.

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