Christian National Union

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The Christian National Union (Polish: Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe, ZChN) was a right-wing Polish political party that combined Christian democracy with nationalism. It was founded on 15 September 1989 by Wiesław Chrzanowski and based in Warsaw. The party traced its roots to the Solidarity movement and to older Polish Christian democratic traditions. It promoted social conservatism and Catholic values, and its color was blue. The party existed until 27 January 2010.

Wiesław Chrzanowski led ZChN from its start until 1994. The party joined the Alliance for Poland with the Centre Agreement and took part in governments from 1989 to 1993. In the 1991 parliamentary elections it won 8.7% of the vote. In 1993 it ran on a broader list and won 6.4%, falling short of the 8% threshold for coalitions.

In 1996 ZChN helped form the centre-right Solidarity Electoral Action, which won the 1997 elections with 33.8% and led the government under Jerzy Buzek until 2001. In 2001, as Solidarity Electoral Action became a federation, ZChN was one of its four member parties. The coalition failed to win seats in the 2001 election, getting about 5.6% due to splits and new rival parties like Civic Platform and Law and Justice.

After that, ZChN stayed as a mass organization with about 10,000 members in 2004. In 2007 most ZChN politicians joined the League of Polish Families, while some had already joined Law and Justice (which had formed in 2001). ZChN was finally dissolved in 2010. Today, Law and Justice and the National Movement claim to be its successors, with Law and Justice retaining most former ZChN members and the National Movement adopting many ZChN policies as a modern version of National Democracy.