“Everyone wants Poland to be independent, sovereign, rich and make us stronger. And the possession of our national assets, state-owned enterprises, national assets, that is precisely the strengthening of Poland. Regardless of the political option or voting for a particular party, this is an important patriotic action for all of us Poles,” said Iwona Arent, a PiS MP, who sits on eg the parliamentary committee on energy, climate and state assets.
wPolityce.pl: 77 percent. Poles in the Social Changes survey for wPolityce.pl stated that “the largest enterprises should remain state-owned”. How would you react to this result?
Yvonne Arend: This is a good inquiry, although we have known for a long time that it is, because as MPs we travel around the country and meet Poland.
We are in constant contact with our constituents and for some time we have heard the opinion that there is no permission to sell our most important companies, especially the strategic ones.
So I am not surprised by this poll result. This shows that the Polish government works very well, takes care of our national property, does not sell it, but even buys it back. This was the case, for example, with banks and the energy sector.
This is a poll that shows the government is on the right track.
Interestingly, the privatization of Polish companies is also opposed by voters from the opposition parties, including the liberal: Civic Coalition (66 percent) and Poland 2050 (70 percent).
Of course, because it’s not even about whether someone is a PiS voter or a Civic Platform voter, but whether someone is a Pole, a Polish citizen.
Everyone wants Poland to be independent, sovereign, rich and make us stronger. And the possession of our national assets, state-owned enterprises, national assets, that is precisely the strengthening of Poland. Regardless of the political option or voting for a particular party, this is an important patriotic action for all of us Poles.
What would Civic Platform experts, its liberal economic authorities, such as Leszek Balcerowicz or Bogusław Grabowski, have said about it, who have often mentioned the privatization of state-owned enterprises.
As for Balcerowicz, this authority has long since fallen. Professor Balcerowicz already lost this authority in the 1990s when he sold out Poland. Then there was high unemployment, poverty, misery, hungry children. I have experienced it myself, I remember that time of unemployment.
If the Civic Platform wants to reach out to such authorities, congratulations, they do it even better for us, because people see that the actions and strategies of these economists have not served Poland and the Poles well.
The platform for now refrains from any “bold” ideas of Balcerowicz or Grabowski, argues that these are private opinions of experts, but can we really expect that after coming to power it will not be tempted to sell state-owned companies?
Civic platform cannot be trusted. We have already seen this when politicians from this party argued before the elections that they absolutely would not raise the retirement age. Similarly – that money from open pension funds will not be taken away or our national assets will not be sold.
What did they do immediately after winning the election? They started raising the retirement age, attacking open pension funds, selling assets, our national assets, they also tried to sell LOT, but luckily they failed. They would still sell a lot of stuff if they were still in power.
The Civic Platform should be approached with caution. If the politicians of this party say they are not going to do something, let’s be careful, because maybe it’s the other way around. They cannot be trusted.
The current situation in Ukraine also shows the importance of state-owned enterprises. Where would we be today if our energy sector was in the hands of Russia, for example?
It is of course important that our state property is in Polish hands, because then we decide on it ourselves. A good example is why we did not want Poland to join the Eurozone. Thanks to the fact that we have our Polish zloty, we can regulate the situation in the market.
However, if we were in the Eurozone, we would not have this opportunity. Likewise, with our main energy companies, we can decide on our energy security. If they were even sold to the Russians, we would be held hostage by the Russians today.
That is why it is important that such important, important industries, Polish energy or gas companies, are in Polish hands. It’s our national security. Security and independence.
Thank you very much for the interview.
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-OUR RESEARCH. Poles are unequivocally against the privatization of key companies. “Evidence of high maturity in economic policy”
– Deputy Prime Minister Sasin comments on the results of the poll for wPolityce.pl: The PiS government is a guarantee that there will be no sale of state-owned companies
Size: Joanna Jaszczuk
Source: wPolityce