The Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action (, ROAD) was a political faction in Poland coalescing the liberal wing of Solidarity movement after its entry into the Sejm in the 1989 parliamentary election. Its competition with the conservative wing of Solidarity represented by the Centre Agreement culminated in ROAD's defeat in the 1990 presidential election and ultimate unification with the Forum of the Democratic Right into the Democratic Union.
History
Background
thumb|upright|left|Leader of ROAD, Władysław Frasyniuk, 1990
On 24 August 1989, Tadeusz Mazowiecki became Poland's first non-communist Prime Minister of Poland since Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski in the interwar era. Mazowiecki's coronation as Prime Minister came about as the result of an agreement between two of the political factions within Solidarność - the future Centre Agreement (PC) led by Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński, and the trade union's leader, Lech Wałęsa, who sought to sideline the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and create a coalition between Solidarność, the Alliance of Democrats and United People's Party - formerly PZPR's satellite parties.
thumb|left|upright|Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki
However, Mazowiecki, soon after assuming the office of Prime Minister, fell out with Wałęsa and the Kaczyński brothers, rejecting their influence and pursuing a liberal and reformist course for Poland.
Founding
The Movement was founded on 16 July 1990 as a faction within the by its reformist members, which supported Mazowiecki. It often collaborated with two different factions of Solidarność, Mazowiecki's Democratic Union (UD) and Aleksander Hall's Forum of the Democratic Right.
The party declared itself as a counterforce to the Centre Agreement, primarily clashing on the issue of PZPR within the Sejm. While PC wanted to sideline the communists and later post-communists, ROAD were open to cooperation with reformists and liberals within PZPR. Before ROAD's formal founding, its future members sought to establish a coalition between Solidarność and PZPR's reformist wing.