With inflation on the rise again in Poland under the new left-liberal government, conservatives are going on the offensive. Jarosław Sachajko, an independent MP who was elected on the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) slate, said in an interview that he had predicted that inflation would rise but that he is surprised how quickly this has happened.
“It really takes some doing to wreck an economy so quickly, an economy that was until recently dynamic with all indicators moving in the right direction,” he told DoRzeczy.pl.
According to preliminary data from Statistics Poland (GUS) published on Tuesday, inflation in Poland in April 2024 reached 2.4 percent year-over-year, and on a monthly basis, prices increased by 1 percent.
The Tusk government had argued that the budget deficit of the previous PiS government had been too high; however, the current left-liberal government has simply increased it while telling everyone they do not have the money to do anything. As a result, the government “is reaching ever deeper into our pockets,” says Sochajko, citing that it has increased VAT on food, removed price controls on energy and water, and increased fuel prices.
As a result, inflation is now growing fast.
The opposition conservative MP also argues that the government is behaving irresponsibly with so many ministers and their deputies after just four months attempting to decamp to Brussels by standing in the European parliamentary elections. These practices do not build business confidence. In addition, the prime minister himself, who had promised he would be listened to in Brussels, is “just doing all of Brussels’ bidding” without standing up for Poland, argued Sachajko.
Sachajko stated that foreign institutions and entrepreneurs may not be able to go on strike or block roads, but they can withdraw capital and locate it somewhere else. He also fears a domino effect, with speculative capital causing a run on Poland’s currency, the zloty.
