After leading politicians from the Platform and the Hołownia party began to threaten the President of the National Bank of Poland, Professor Adam Glapiński, by taking him to the State Tribunal, he together with several other members of the board of directors convened a press conference , where it was communicated that such attacks were damaging Poland’s financial credibility..
The opposition wants to summon the NBP chairman to the State Tribunal
President Glapiński pointed out that politicians’ attacks on an independent central bank are unique in a democratic country and affect international prestige, and can also have serious negative financial consequences, including speculative play on the devaluation of the zloty and an increase in costs pay off Polish debts.
He also recalled that the NBP belongs to the system of European Central Banks, meaning that its independence is guaranteed by the European Central Bank and other EU institutions, including the CJEU (this EU court recently blocked the decision to deprive the President of the Latvian Central Bank of his position).
Opposition politicians as reasons for accusing Prof. Glapiński before the State Tribunal, in their opinion, they mention the late start of raising NBP interest rates due to increased inflation, as well as the launch of the so-called quantitative easing in connection with the government’s launch of financial support for entrepreneurs and workers, caused by the negative effects of Covid on the Polish economy.
One of the members of the NBP board, lawyer Prof. Rafał Sura, pointed out that individual decisions are accountable to the State Tribunal, and that politicians’ accusations regarding interest rates or quantitative easing are collective decisions, with the former Council for Monetary Policy consists of ten people together with the president of the NBP, in which each member has one vote, the last of the 9-member NBP board, in which each member also has one vote.
This means that opposition politicians are launching a public apparatus of accusations against the President of the NBP, which could cause enormous financial damage to Poland, without even checking whether it is formally possible to initiate a trial before the State Tribunal, in a situation where collective decisions are involved, not individual decisions.
Tusk attacks the president of the National Bank of Poland
Let us not forget that last summer the leader of the Platform, Donald Tusk, tried to undermine the candidacy of Prof. Adam Glapiński for the second term of President of the National Bank of Poland (NBP).
He publicly accused the president of mismanagement of the central bank and furthermore threatened that if the Platform came to power, he would forcibly remove President Glapiński from the NBP building.
In July 2022, Tusk said at the convention in Radom: “Adam Glapiński is not only incompetent, not only indecent in what he does, he is also illegal. He will not be president of the National Bank of Poland for another day. You don’t need an account. If the Platform wins the elections, I will personally remove Glapiński from the National Bank of Poland.
The main motivation for Tusk’s sharp and absurd attacks on President Glapiński was to prevent his appointment for a second term as an opponent of Poland’s entry into the eurozone.
Opposition to the euro in Poland
Because Prof. During his first term, Glapiński made no secret of the fact that he was a strong opponent of Poland’s entry into the eurozone. Moreover, after being nominated by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, as a candidate for the presidency of the Eurozone, NBP for the second term, he directly announced that as long as he was head of the central bank, our country would not be among the eurozone would join.
Of course, entering the Eurozone is a long procedure, you must complete the so-called to meet the Maastricht criteria (fiscal and monetary). For this to happen, a referendum is also needed in Poland, and perhaps also an amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, but those who give Tusk an order in Brussels Returning to Polish politics, Poland wanted to be included in the ERM II zone, i.e. pegging the zloty to the euro with a permanent exchange rate, and this already determines entry into the eurozone.
But to apply to the ERM II zone, it is sufficient that the Prime Minister of the Government and the Governor of the Central Bank jointly submit an application to the ECB in a confidential manner, presenting exchange rate proposals at the same time. which the central bank must then defend during the entire period of its stay in this zone (only deviations from this rate +/- 15%).
This is enough, rather only after 2 years or a little later the country is already a member of the eurozone, with all the consequences that entails, and what these consequences are, it is enough to map out the situation of Slovakia, how many citizens were poorer after this country’s entry into the eurozone in 2009.
And your own money is the basis for rapid development. That is why, despite crises, the Polish economy has registered GDP growth two to three times faster than the Eurozone average, and in addition we are among the top three countries in the EU with the lowest unemployment level in several years.
Our own currency and its exchange rate are also a shock absorber of all external shocks. If it were not there, in any case we would have to pay for a crisis with a significant drop in GDP and, as a result, with high unemployment.
It is the right combination of monetary policy (including the exchange rate) and fiscal policy that Poland is among the leading EU countries with the highest GDP growth after the second quarter of this year compared to the last quarter of 2019, i.e. the year before. -Covid period.
At the above-mentioned press conference, President Glapiński directly said that the attacks on him by opposition politicians are a pretext for his resignation in order to install in the NBP a person loyal to the possible new government of Donald Tusk.
The point is to drag Poland into the ERM II system by the ears, and then, despite the complicated procedure in our country, joining the Eurozone will only be a matter of time.
Source: wPolityce
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.