The party represented the "independent left" that challenged the anti-communist and pro-communist dichotomy of Polish politics while maintaining a strongly leftist profile inspired by pre-WW2 socialist and agrarian movements.
[8] Despite ideological disputes between coalition members, in particular between the Eurosceptic Samoobrona and the pro-EU Labour Union, as well as funding gap, the Social Alliance was well-received and achieved a good result.
[2] In its manifesto, Przymierze Społeczne declared: 'Nothing will change in Poland if we do not counter the successive varieties of post-Solidarity and post-communist liberalism with an alliance of working people.'
[2] Marek Pol argued that the formation of the coalition was necessary because the electoral law that was being prepared clearly favoured large groupings (i.e. the SLD and AWS), and according to Kalinowski of the PSL, one of the Social Alliance's main goals was to oppose the division of the political scene into post-Communist and post-Solidarity groupings and to establish an alternative for those who did not want to cast their votes for either the Democratic Left Alliance or the Solidarity Electoral Action.
However, since his person was supported by the PSL, I understand that it takes full responsibility for the fact that Mr Lepper will implement the programme of the Social Alliance".
However, both parties defended the presence of Samoobrona and its leader Andrzej Lepper in the coalition, arguing that it is preferable "that the participants of the radical agricultural protests get on the road to democratic procedures as soon as possible.
[13] Nevertheless, political magazine Polityka noted that Labour Union had been more supportive of agricultural protests as well as the economic proposals of the Polish People's Party and Samoobrona rather than its fellow social-democratic Democratic Left Alliance, thus acquiring a populist, agrarian image on its own.
Although Lepper continued his lavish criticism on SLD politicians, he distinguished the liberal wing associated with Kwasniewski from the democratic socialist group headed by Miller and Oleksy.
After a coalition cabinet of the social-democratic Left Democratic Alliance and Polish People's Party was formed, Samoobrona entered a confidence and supply agreement with it, displaying its post-communist alignment by supporting the cabinet's proposals to significantly limit the Lustration Act (which excluded former communist public servants from public offices), defund the anti-communist Institute of National Remembrance, and preserve the special privileges for the officers of the Communist Poland.
The main electorate of the coalition were to be Polish farmers and rural population,[21] as well as the "losers" of neoliberal reforms that transitioned Poland to a capitalist economy - Balcerowicz Plan.
[2] Social Alliance protested the neoliberal reforms and austerity measures implemented in Poland after the downfall of communist Polish People's Republic, and heavily campaigned against them.
In its campaign, Social Alliance noted the disparity between the claims of continuous growth and development by neoliberal parties and the actual living conditions of most Poles, marked by persisting poverty and inequality.
The coalition argued that the economy "must serve the people, and their success is to be measured by improvements in the living conditions of millions of citizens, not by the affluence of a narrow elite provided by liberals."
[24] To accommodate all members of the coalition and carve out a unique identity that would set it apart from the two main forces competing in the election, Social Alliance presented an agricultural, rural ethos personified with the chant "Nation, Tradition, Land" (Polish: Naród, Tradycja, Ziemia) combined with feminist and anti-capitalist phraseology.
With slogans such as "Together we can do it", "Serve no foreigners" and "Balcerowicz — dud of the year", it sought to evoke among their, largely poor, voters a sense of "ours", familiarity and emotional connectivity.
The coalition portrayed the neoliberal and capitalist reforms carried out by previous governments as a heartless, pragmatic, pro-Western policy, with no regard for the ordinary people.
[5] Samoobrona, a far-left socialist grouping, was strongly critical of Labour Union shortly before forming the coalition, denouncing it as "pure water liberals" pretending to be "defenders of working people".
[8] Meanwhile, the Polish People's Party faced rebellion from its nationalist and conservative wings, whose representatives stated: "The Social Alliance is an artificial creation and should not exist.