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The Civic Platform
The Civic Platform (Polish: Platforma Obywatelska, PO) is a liberal conservative political party in Poland. It has formed Poland's government since the 2007 general election, and is the largest party in the Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament. Civic Platform is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).

Foundation
Civic Platform was founded in 2001 as a split-off from existing parties. Founders: Andrzej Olechowski, Maciej Plazynski and Donald Tusk were sometimes jokingly called "the Three Tenors" by Polish media and commentators. Olechowski and Plazynski left the party during the 2001-2005 parliamentary term, leaving Donald Tusk as the sole remaining founder, and current party leader.

Development
In the 2001 general election the party scored 12.6% and won 58 deputies in the Sejm, making it the largest party in opposition to the government led by the Democratic Left Alliance.

PO-PiS failure
In 2005, the PO led all opinion polls with 26% to 30% support, however in the 2005 general election, in which it was led by Jan Rokita, the PO scored 24.1% and came second only to Law and Justice (PiS), which took 27.0%. A coalition of PO and PiS (nicknamed:PO-PiS) was expected to be the most likely government to form after the election. The putative coalition parties had a falling out, however, related to the fierce contest for the Polish presidency.

In the end, Lech Kaczynski (PiS) won the second round of the presidential election on 23 October 2005 with 54.0% of the vote, ahead of Donald Tusk, the PO candidate. Due to the demands of PiS for all armed ministries (the MOD, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the office of the Prime Minister, PO and PiS were unable to form a coalition. PiS wanted to create a government it could dominate; therefore, PiS had to form a coalition with the support of the conservative Catholic-nationalist League of Polish Families and the agrarian-populist Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland parties which were later called the addons (in Polish: przystawki) by the Polish media. Only with these parties could PiS create a government it would dominate. The PO became the opposition to this PiS-led coalition government.

Run for power
This coalition fell apart in 2007 amid corruption scandals[1] and internal leadership disputes. These events led to the new elections. In the 21 October 2007 National Assembly election, the party won 41.51 % of the popular vote and 209 out of 460 seats in the Sejm and 60 out of 100 seats in the Senate of Poland. Civic Platform defeated the PiS in these elections and subsequently formed a government along with the People's Party.