[4] The name of the party comes from a concept that Andrzej Lepper, the leader of Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, formulated between 1999 and 2000, called "The People's National Bloc" (Polish: Blok Ludowo-Narodowy).

[7] This political bloc was to become a permanent formula for cooperation of all parties united by their opposition to neoliberalism, particularly the reforms of Leszek Balcerowicz and Jerzy Buzek that privatized state industries, abolished regulations, slashed the socialist welfare state, and removed trade protections - something that Samoobrona decried as "socio-economic satanism" and "economic genocide", citing the spike in inflation, unemployment and death rates caused by these reforms.

However, this plan did not come to fruition as Polish People's Party refused to cooperate with Samoobrona, despite Lepper offering concessions such as ceding leading electoral list positions.

[12] Despite its far-left position, Samoobrona would then inch closer to the far-right League of Polish Families, given that both parties were bitterly opposed to the further privatization plans proposed and carried out by the government.

[14] This proposal was directly replaced by the coalition between Samoobrona, League of Polish Families and (back then) Christian democrat Law and Justice; the founders of the People's National Movement took the name of their parliamentary group directly from The People's National Bloc concept of Samoobrona, and found it necessary to maintain the coalition at all cost, as they considered the only way to prevent another economically liberal government from taking power.

While this endangered the existence of the grouping (a minimum of 15 MPs were required), their places were subsequently taken by Piotr Cybulski, formerly a Civic Platform member, and Henryk Młynarczyk - a dissident Samoobrona RP MP.

[5] The existence of the grouping and its attempt to maintain the coalition with Law and Justice prompted Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS, to further encourage defections from Samoobrona RP.

Attempts to win support for Jarosław Kaczyński's government from successive Self-Defence MPs took the form of political corruption involving the Law and Justice party leaders in the persons of Adam Lipiński and Wojciech Mojzesowicz and, on the part of Samoobrona, Renata Beger.

[4] People's National Movement and its MPs led extensive negotiations and held talks to maintain the coalition between Samoobrona RP, League of Polish Families and Law and Justice in October and November 2006.

Leader of the People's National Movement, Jan Bestry, declared his readiness to negotiate with Samoobrona RP, arguing that it "may be difficult, but not impossible".

[6] It described itself as closest to the agrarian Polish People's Party in terms of ideology and described the coalition with it, together with Law and Justice, Samoobrona RP and LPR as its ideal government.

[6] However, conservative Radio Maryja criticized the grouping, arguing that despite its cooperation with Law and Justice, the presence of the conservative-nationalist current was marginal and its electoral list promoted 'liberal-leaning' candidates.