Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said that the next government will inherit a state budget in far better condition than could be expected for the current geopolitical climate, as opposition leaders attempt to enforce a false narrative about the state of Poland’s public finances.
In a social media post, Morawiecki explained that both financial rating agencies and the European Commission had recently given Poland’s finances a clean bill of health, and accused spin doctors from the parties that will soon have a parliamentary majority of claiming otherwise because they know they overpromised during the recent election and will need to backtrack on electoral pledges.
“(They are) much better than could have been expected after a prolonged pandemic crisis, energy crisis, and the war in Ukraine,” the prime minister wrote.
“If you compare the rise in GDP with the rise in debt, you find that public finances are in a much better state than they were when the present conservative PiS government took over from its liberal predecessors, who had to keep the public debt in check by nationalizing pension funds and selling off public companies at knock-down prices,” he added.
The ratio between public debt and GDP, which rose by 7.5 percent in the time of the previous liberal administration, actually fell by 3.6 percent during the time of the present Law and Justice (PiS) government. This, according to Morawiecki, means that Poland’s state of public finances places it in the vicinity of frugal countries such as the Netherlands.
Morawiecki fears that the liberal opposition won a parliamentary majority off the back of unrealistic promises to the Polish electorate, such as tax cuts, higher public sector pay, subsidized mortgages, and lower social security contributions for employers, all of which he believes will turn out to be “figures of speech” that should not have been taken “literally.”
The liberal Civic Coalition (KO) is expected to form a coalition government with several center and left-wing parties, and it is understood this would be led by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who is the European Union’s preferred candidate.
