Bombastic slogans, but no concretes

Rhetoric about "repairing" the state dominated the Prime Minister's announcement of his roadmap for government.

Law and Justice's (PiS) minority government passed a confidence vote last Thursday thanks to the support of populist parties in the Sejm. In order for Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's government to be accepted, 231 votes were required. As the WBJ was going to press PiS, which has 154 deputies, was expected to form an unofficial coalition with Self-defense (SO) and the League of Polish Families (LPR), which together have 88 votes, enough to have the government approved despite opposition from the second-largest force in the Sejm - Civic Platform (PO).

In announcing the roadmap for his government, Marcinkiewicz said that "repairing" the state was the government's top priority, and devoted the bulk of his speech to vague pledges to clean up politics. He promised to eradicate corruption and, "to take the state away from parasite networks and informal lobby groups and return it to its rightful owners - the Polish people." He claimed that a decaying, weak state has a negative influence on the economic and social condition of the nation.

Marcinkiewicz also devoted a large part of his speech to social issues, specifically focusing on the economic and social strengthening of the family as well as active social policy. He promised to introduce new income-tax deductions for families with children, and extend maternity leave and payments for new mothers to encourage childbearing.

The Prime Minister was unspecific about his government's economic program, and repeated his party's well-worn slogans: "We will carry out the economic policy of social solidarity." Marcinkiewicz also confirmed that a budget deficit of zł.30 billion will be maintained. He spoke about his party's desire to draw foreign medium-sized investors to Poland: "They will benefit not only from lower costs, but also from the new system which we will introduce and which will make contacts with the administration easier."

The Prime Minister also affirmed that the government won't privatize key companies, such as Poczta Polska, TVP and PKO BP.