Dr. Artur Bartoszewicz, an economist and political commentator from the Warsaw School of Economics, has voiced strong criticisms regarding the Polish government’s handling of the European Union’s excessive deficit procedure. In a YouTube interview with tabloid Super Express, Bartoszewicz described the procedure as a convenient excuse for the government led by Donald Tusk to curtail state functions significantly.
“The government can now conveniently say: There is no money and there won’t be,” he stated.
According to Bartoszewicz, the deficit procedure serves as a pretext for “rolling up Poland,” promoting a vision of a non-functional, inactive state.
“We are being driven towards a scenario where the nation-state ceases to function effectively, becoming helpless and undeveloped,” he remarked.
Bartoszewicz pointed out that the European Commission will indicate to the Tusk government where to cut expenses in areas such as national defense, research, and education.
“It provides a perfect justification for not realizing any investments; everything is getting rolled up. The state is supposed to be smiling and tucked away,” he commented.
He fears this degradation of state functionality could push Polish citizens to consider emigration or to submit to the will of the European Union.
“If Poles see the administrative chaos, they might indeed conclude that perhaps someone else should solve our problems for us and say: Yes, one state, the great European Union, let Brussels manage us,” he said.
Moreover, Bartoszewicz highlighted concerns over national security and border integrity, referencing recent geopolitical tensions.
“The state doesn’t exist as it should; unguarded borders are proof of that. To the west, a foreign state is bringing migrants into our country and disregards our intelligence services, military, and police. It’s like 1939 again; they come and go as they please. On the other side, we have Belarus, together with the Russians, doing whatever they want to us because our soldiers are under-equipped, unprotected, without medicine, without ammunition, and with magazines taped over — unable to shoot,” he said.
Addressing the possibility of Poland exiting the EU, he dismissed it as implausible.
“We’re in a situation where everything is ‘neo,’ without any formal institution left, except the president and the National Bank of Poland,” he explained, suggesting that any referendum on EU membership would be contested by both the European Commission and domestic politicians.
