Portrait
GDP is growing and there is no shortage of work. But pensioners and families that depend on public benefits are also increasing. While the European Commission has its eyes on Warsaw for a set of reforms considered non-compliant with EU standards, there is widespread concern over the possibility of authoritarian drifts at internal level
The European Commission is once again faced with a “Poland-case.” On Sunday July 16 people took to streets in Warsaw and in many other cities of the Country to protest Constitutional changes carried out by Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s absolute majority Party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc – PiS), introducing reforms which for members of the opposition violate the fair division of legislative, executive and judiciary powers. Unlike the protests carried out under Communist rule, these are not ascribable to economic reasons.
Booming economy. In the first three months of 2017, GDP rose by 4.1%. The International Monetary Fund forecast a 3.6% GDP growth for the year 2017. Moreover, for the past 13 years, since the Country’s adhesion to the European Union, Polish economy registered greater progress compared to EU average rates. Unemployment (20% in 2004) is today less than 8% on an annual basis, while past May it was under 5%. According to Fitch credit rating agency in the second semester of 2017 and in 2018 Poland will register a peak in consumption largely due to the national economic support scheme for families with more than one child (500+), but also to infrastructure investments paid with European funds. Considering that pro capita GDP in Poland would exceed 70% of European average, the EU allocated to 82.5 billion Euro to Poland (the greatest beneficiary of all 29 Member Countries) from its 2014-2020 budget.
Success of the “500+” Program. However, for a large percentage of Polish families income comes from pension funds, which constitute the main source of income for 36.7 percent of all households. The data refers to the recent Report released by Poland’s Central Bank for the first trimester of 2016, but the figures will need to be reviewed considering 330 thousand new pensioners – men and women who will be respectively turning 60 and 65 – by the end of the year. The “500+” program adopted at the end of 2016, pointed out Elzbieta Rafalska, Minister of Labour and Social Policies, “has already helped almost 4 million children to get out of poverty” (57% of all children.) The aim of the program is to provide support to 97% of poor children, while the government proposal includes also social housing and financial aids to enable indigent families to purchase a home of their own, to be integrated within the “500+” Program.
The “danger of addiction.” While economy scholar Janusz Jankowiak warns the recipients of pension funds to avert the risk of addiction and guards against the difficulties of keeping one’s job within a rapidly changing job market, Leszek Balcerowicz, Polish ex-Prime Minister, ex-President of Poland’s Central Bank denounced the “malfeasance of the regime” aimed at ensuring electoral consensus to the detriment of the national budget and subsequently of the entire national community.
International isolation? Adam Michnik, renowned long-term anti-Communist dissident, in an article appeared in “Gazeta Wyborcza” on July 15, accused Kaczynski of having “violated the Polish Constitution, the independence of the judiciary, of having taken possession of public property, of undermining the independence of theatres, culture, museums, films, and even of logging the Bialowieza Forest” whose deforestation decided by the government as the best remedy to a certain kind of bug (which has always been present in this last major primeval woodland in Europe) is continuing despite the warnings of the EU and UNESCO. Furthermore, Michnik denounced “Poland’s international isolation”, also considering the lack of positive answers to a set of urgent issues, which includes the reception of refugees and migrants. It should be remembered that according to surveys carried out in June, 91% of PiS voters are against the reception of refugees, while 70% of Polish public opinion are reluctant to give hospitality to Muslim refugees.
