Poland’s ruling coalition gets a new party as Hennig-Kloska launches Unia Centrum from the ashes of Poland 2050 split

Formation of Unia Centrum

On Sunday, 12 July 2026, climate minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska and MEP Michał Kobosko announced the creation of Unia Centrum, a new political party combining the parliamentary club Centrum and the Union of European Democrats (UED). The merger uses the UED’s legal registration (number 12 in the party register) and its statutes. Hennig-Kloska becomes party chair, with vice-chairs Mirosław Suchoń, Elżbieta Bińczycka, Ewa Szymanowska and Kobosko. Secretary general Rafał Kasprzyk will oversee structure building. Almost all 15 MPs and 3 senators of the Centrum club are expected to join, though four – Norbert Pietrykowski, Rafał Komarewicz, Marcin Skonieczka and Ryszard Petru – are still deliberating. The membership base counts about 300 activists from the Centrum Association and roughly 500 from the UED. The UED traces its roots to the Freedom Union and the Democratic Party, historically linked to post-1989 democratic currents.

Unia Centrum will be a strong foundation of the 15 October coalition.

Roots in the Poland 2050 split

The new party stems from a February 2026 rupture inside Poland 2050, when Hennig-Kloska lost a leadership contest to Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. Alongside over a dozen MPs and senators, she left and set up the Centrum parliamentary club. In late May, the Centrum Association was registered. The July announcement formalises the split into a regular political party. Poland 2050, once part of the Third Way coalition that captured 14.4 percent in 2023, has seen its support erode: its presidential candidate Szymon Hołownia scored 4.99 percent in 2025, and the party now polls below the electoral threshold. Hennig-Kloska stressed that the new formation would remain loyal to the ruling coalition and that she wanted the party to appeal to voters disappointed with the Civic Coalition.

We are merging two political environments: the one behind the Centrum parliamentary club and association, led by minister Hennig-Kloska, and the existing Union of European Democrats, chaired by Elżbieta Bińczycka.

Programme and identity

The party’s programme pillars – to be detailed at a September convention – include a strong economy, entrepreneurship, responsible energy transition, robust local government, state security and strengthening Poland’s EU position. Its blue-green colours symbolise freedom, enterprise and modernity (blue) and environmental responsibility (green). Leaders insisted that economic development and environmental protection reinforce each other. Hennig-Kloska said the values would also refer to those that “lay at the foundation of building a free Poland after 1989”. The party aims to be a stable, centre-ground force inside the ruling camp.

Centrum is the place where people gather to work out the best compromises.

Early criticism and polling

Before the launch, criticism was loud. Civic Coalition MP Artur Łącki accused the group of caring only about spoils and argued they helped cost Rafał Trzaskowski the presidency. Online reactions were predominantly negative; users called the initiative a rebranding exercise to catch disillusioned Civic Coalition voters and predicted a result below 2 percent. A CBOS poll conducted on 6–8 July, published before the announcement, gave Centrum only 0.1 percent support – the lowest of all measured parties. The response “other party” scored 0.2 percent.

This lot, who still haven’t grasped that politics is a team sport – the people because of whom Trzaskowski lost the election – are now setting up a new party. Pathetic.

What comes next

A programmatic convention is planned for September to present detailed policies. The leadership expects nearly all club members to join and hopes to attract voters from the former Third Way electorate and from those disappointed within the broader ruling coalition. For now, Unia Centrum enters Polish politics with a parliamentary foothold, a tiny poll rating and open scepticism from a coalition partner.