The convention criticized the confidence and supply agreement that Samoobrona reached with Labour Union and Democratic Left Alliance, two centre-left social-democratic parties.
It steadily rose in popularity as an anti-establishment movement protesting the economic shock therapy and neoliberal Balcerowicz Plan, which carried out extensive free-market reforms in Poland and dissolved the socialist economy and welfare state.
As the reforms led to numerous protests, road blocks and hunger strikes, Samoobrona rapidly developed through direct and grass-roots actions, and got involved in Polish trade union movement.
[11] Samoobrona positioned itself as an anti-establishment movement, running "against neoliberalism, against capitalism, against ruling elites, against the urban intellectual bias of Polish politics.
Amongst the early demands of the party was an economic system that would replace materialism and consumerism with a closer relationship with the natural environment, preservation of small family farms, and humane treatment of animals.
Samoobrona promoted its concept of "econology", which it described as the introduction of social ethics and morality into economic thinking.
Effectively the party called for a 'just' economy based on agrarian, ethical and anti-capitalist principles, which it more strictly formulated in its 1993 program, which stated: "We want a Poland, in which there will not be such drastic material differences: no so-called ‘ocean of destitution’ with tiny ‘islands’ of wealth and well-being.
Samoobrona tolerated the nationalist wings of its supporters as it pursued a strategy of developing a wide spectrum of interests, appealing to workers, the unemployed, pensioners and the poor, resulting in the party becoming a "loose organization that engaged in a non-conventional, protest profile"; the main ideology of the party was simply described as “healthy [economical] development, the care for disfavoured people and the national interest.
[14] International media would describe Lepper as "Polish Hugo Chávez", comparing and finding similarities with their socialist and populist rhetoric.
[4] In late 2005, the party published a public announcement in which it justified its decision to separate from Samoobrona, stating: "Andrzej Lepper's party Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, which grew on a wave of social discontent, failed its rank-and-file members, so we decided to establish a new political formation called Self-Defence of the Polish Nation."
[1] In the 2005 Polish parliamentary election, SNP member Mirosław Chandrała ran for the Sejm in the Łódź constituency from the list of the All-Polish Civic Coalition (Polish: Ogólnopolska Koalicja Obywatelska), a minor electoral formation that called for the introduction of social market economy in Poland.
[9] While the party was not allowed to field its own lists, it endorsed independent candidates, such as Roman Chomicki representing the "Electoral Committee of the Movement for the Elimination of Unemployment" (Polish: Komitet Wyborczy Wyborców Ruch Likwidacji Bezrobocia), who won under 1% of the popular vote.
This accusation was lodged by Self-Defence of the Polish Nation against Samoobrona MP Alfred Budner, who was to demand money from local activists in order to secure a place on the party's electoral lists.
In the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, the party fielded a single candidate for the Senate in Bielsko-Biała constituency - Antoni Waleczek.
[25] The party had a national, Catholic, conservative and Eurosceptic policies, and it advocated Poland's exit from the European Union and NATO.
[7] It called for an ambitious program of nationalization of Poland, which the party advertised by slogans such as "land for peasants" and "factories for workers".
It presented itself as the 'real' Samoobrona, accusing its parent party (Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland) as betraying its own program and engaging in corruption.