Leadership in new political parties in Poland and its importance for overcoming the threshold of party representation and for party institutionalization

After the period of relative stabilization of the Polish party system at the parliamentary level in the first decade of the 21st century, changes related to the entry of new parties on the political scene took place in the second one. While in 2007 only four established parties (PO, PiS, SLD and PSL) got seats in the parliament, and the party system at the parliamentary level was described as "concreted". In subsequent elections of 2011, 2015, 2019, newly created parties managed to overcome the threshold of party representation. What they have in common is that they were founded shortly before the election by recognizable leaders and immediately achieved election success, which they were not able to repeat in subsequent elections, they lost their importance and were replaced by newer parties. The aim of the article is to define what role the leader plays in achieving electoral success of new parties and what is the importance of leadership for the party's survival and further election success. These issues are considered in the context of changing the organizational model and the concepts of party institutionalization.