Drift to the right
Until the early 2000s, the party appealed to defined socio-economic constituencies, especially the rural-agrarian electorate. However, it tried to broaden its appeal to the poor and the so-called "transition losers", namely social groups that became impoverished as a result of the capitalist transformation. This led the PSL to position itself "as an aggressively anti-liberal and pro-state intervention part". Szczerbiak argues that in 2003, the party represented the "left-wing, anti-liberal pole". To this end, the party shifted its message, gradually abandoning the focus on agrarian issues in order to campaign on broad policies such as slowing down privatisation, restricting foreign capital in the Polish economy, and protecting the poor from budget cuts. It was in the 2000s that the party would abandon rural aesthetics such as village bands, costumes, and disco polo music, replacing it with tailored suits and presenting itself as a modern party. The party went as far as claiming that it is no longer aimed at primarily farmers, stating it its 2001 program that "the PSL is a centre-left party for everyone—farmers, hired employees, businessmen, craftsmen, shopkeepers, the intelligentsia, students, retirees and pensioners, residents of rural areas, small towns as well as cities".
However, the party was eclipsed by the radical Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, a far-left populist party that adopted the most left-wing and national protectionist stance on socio-economic issues out of all Polish parties. Campaigning on redistribution of wealth, state-guaranteed social minimum, maximum wage for the rich, imposing tariffs and calling for radical measures such as reversing privatization through nationalization and forced removal of foreign capital from Polish economy, Samoobrona gained recognition as the party of the poor, unemployed, farmers and "transition losers" in general. Samoobrona also undercut PSL's post-communist appeal by referring to communist Poland with nostalgia and targeting former State Agricultural Farms workers who lost their livehood as a result of privatization. Samoobrona was able to successfully win out the poor voters in both 2001 and 2005 parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, PSL's pivot failed to produce a breakthrough, as while it made minor inroads into almost every voting group, it was only barely enough to compensate party's losses amongst its hitherto core constituency, namely the farmers. This led the Polish People's Party to pivot rightwards.
The origin of the party's pivot was in the late 2000s, as the party's anti-liberal slogan was overshadowed by the one of right-wing populist Law and Justice, while agrarian socialism became the staple of the far-left Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, which would form an anti-liberal government together with Law and Justice and League of Polish Families in 2005. PSL started cooperating with the Civic Platform at this time, a party based on liberal and conservative ideas; this forced PSL to tone down its rhetoric as to avoid attacking the anticipated future coalition partner. Political analysis of the party's rhetoric in 2006 found that the party would increasingly embrace liberalism in place of its hitherto economically left-wing program, which placed the party closer to the Civic Platform and other centre-right parties. This was in stark contrast to a fellow agrarian party Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, which espoused conservatively socialist views.
From the late 2000s onwards, the party pivoted away from its once agrarian socialist program in favor of "neoagrarianism", which it defined as the "principle of class solidarity and peasant separatism postulating the necessity of an evolutionary path of social reconstruction on the principles of economic democracy, with particular attention to the interests of agriculture and under the political leadership of the peasant layer." Neoagrarianism of the party also included the concept of a "third way" of social development aiming at the creation of a state system between capitalism and communism. This new form of economic system was to be based on Catholic social teaching and eliminate both "the shortcomings of capitalism and the dangers posed by communism". The neoagrarian economy was also to be based on the principle of Catholic subsidiarity, " the primacy of labour over capital", as well as rejection of monetarism and neoliberalism. The party then gradually abandoned its criticism of liberalism, eventually embracing it as a result.
In the context of the 2005 election, the party was described as centre-left. In 2006, the Polish People's Party was described as "echoing the socialist rhetoric of its past", being left-wing on economic matters while leaning conservative on social issues. In 2007, the party was still referred to as left-leaning. By 2010, the party was described as centrist instead, with a note that in the previous years the party's program "was rather left–wing with a focus on agricultural issues". Analyzing the party's 2000s ideology, Beata Kosowska-Gąstoł argues that PSL combined right-wing worldview with left-wing economic postulates. In 2015, the party was described as centre-right. By 2020, it was referred to as right-wing. In 2024, PSL came to be considered "the most right-wing in its history since the May Coup" (from 1926). In the same year, it was also reported that PSL is turning further to the right, and that it is increasingly accentuating its right-wing identity.
It was also noted that the party started moving away from its agrarian tradition. In 2008, Piotr Borowiec wrote:
The most significant change during this period – although the process had begun before 2005 – was the way politics was conducted by the PSL, the smallest party in parliament between 2005 and 2007. This change mainly consisted of opening up to the world and revising its attitude towards the European Union and, consequently, towards basic economic mechanisms, the market, monetarism and innovation. As a result of these transformations and its political style, which can be described as ‘centrist moderation’, as well as its substantive programme discourse, the party gained many supporters among educated, urban and better-off people. It is therefore no longer a rural party, let alone a ‘peasant’ party.
Polish political scientist Aleksandra Bilewicz wrote that after the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, the party has completely abandoned agrarianism:
There is no reference to agrarianism in the party’s current programme. The current pre-election agreement between the PSL and Polska 2050, called the Third Way (which may be a reference to the peasant tradition), barely mentions its views on agrarian issues, although the coalition's pre-election programme does propose measures to protect small and medium-sized companies. It can therefore be concluded that the PSL today is not continuing the agrarian tradition and that these traditions are not alive within the party. The PSL has earned itself a reputation as a rather ideologically vacuous party.
