UPR was founded in 1987 as the classic liberal Real Politics Movement by Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who later became its long-term leader.

In the 1990s and 2000s, UPR consistently had the support of 1–2% of voters in general elections, too low to receive public funding under Polish electoral law.

In the parliamentary election in 2007, the UPR candidates campaigned in cooperation with the League of Polish Families but did not enter into a formal coalition.

This was insufficient to get any of their candidates into the lower house ("Sejm") and therefore the UPR remains unable to obtain public funding.

In October 2009, Janusz Korwin-Mikke left the party and its another former chairman, Stanisław Michalkiewicz, resigned from his honorary membership.