As a politician, Narutowicz was a mild socialist or a social-democrat. He was a supporter of independence of Lithuania rather than of restoring a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, mostly from fear that the far more populous Poland would gain the upper hand in such a union. On the other hand, he supported a loose union between the states, which made him one of the leaders of the "krajowcy" movement, a group of Polish Lithuanians loyal to the legacy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and supporting reconciliation of divided loyalties of local Poles between Poland and Lithuania. In his vision, the Polish minority in Lithuania would gain a status similar to the Walloons in Belgium: with separate culture and language, but united with Lithuanians by what he called "state patriotism". At the same time he also supported close ties between the nations formerly constituting the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and took part in various Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian enterprises.