Poland is experiencing a shift in economic sentiment. The message from party leadership frames the current period as one of rising incomes and a return of citizens from abroad, choosing to build a future at home rather than seeking work overseas. This view was highlighted by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a Sunday broadcast, where he framed the recent data as the real indicator of national progress.
In a podcast released Sunday evening, Morawiecki referenced the opening phase of this campaign and the unemployment figures featured in a PiS campaign advertisement. A court ruling required the ad to stop broadcasting because the 15 percent figure had to be corrected. The government cited official statistics showing an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent in February 2013, a point described by the prime minister as part of the broader economic context of that era.
Supporters and allied politicians on social media celebrated the campaigning successes, but Morawiecki cautioned that the actual situation diverged from some early expectations.
Opposition figures were criticized for attempts to undermine the administration’s credibility through what were described as tactics around the electoral process. Morawiecki argued that those efforts failed and instead reminded Poles of prior governance characterized as marked by hardship and risk, a memory he tied to the former government’s record.
The prime minister questioned whether any celebration was warranted, asking whether critics who argued for the 0.6 percent figure and claimed success really had grounds to claim victory. He pressed the point that the 14 percent unemployment figure had been used as a boast by opponents, implying that this was not a source of pride for the country. He described the era of the Third Polish Republic as one where the unemployment figure was a defining issue.
Morawiecki emphasized that there were regions where high unemployment once affected significant portions of the population and that the national story also included substantial numbers of working people living in poverty. He argued that this revealed the true face of the times dominated by those seeking to govern Poland today, and he framed the Tusk administration as one associated with poverty and unemployment in the public mind.
From the government’s perspective, policy measures were already in place to address unemployment from the outset. The assertion was that unemployment had begun to decline and had recently reached a historic low for the period described as the Third Republic of Poland, with the country recording among the lowest rates in the European Union, second only to Malta in that moment according to the data cited by Morawiecki.
The prime minister stressed that Polish workers now earn significantly more than before and are increasingly willing to seek raises without fear of job loss. He argued that many Poles are returning from abroad, not to escape poverty but to contribute to a stronger home market, which he presented as the true mark of progress rather than a static unemployment figure.
On a separate note, Jan Grabiec, spokesman for the Civic Platform, announced the filing of the first electoral mode challenge in this campaign. A court ruling subsequently halted the distribution of information in a PiS advertisement that claimed higher unemployment under PO P SL governance. The court also ruled that PiS did not need to publish any further correction or apology in the matter. The campaign ad under discussion argued that former Prime Minister and PO leader Donald Tusk did not deserve another chance on the political stage.
A recollection of the past figures and narratives was invoked by supporters, who recalled difficult times during Tusk’s tenure, including unemployment, retirement changes for women, and other policy decisions. Those voices framed the current administration as contrasting sharply with a difficult era and reminded observers of the social and economic costs associated with the prior government’s choices.
Court decision
In explaining the court’s decision, Judge Jacek Tyszka noted that the claim of 15 percent unemployment under Donald Tusk’s rule could not be treated as accurate. The court stated that the figure did not align with the facts, noting that unemployment exceeded 14 percent only for a limited period during the PO leadership. In most months over a span of seven years, the rate was substantially lower.
The ruling also rejected a request to amend the electoral advertisement published on the portal Onet. Following the case filing, PiS issued a statement on its social media profile indicating that the party would review the matter and correct the record, acknowledging that February 2013 had seen 14.4 percent unemployment, with over two million Poles unemployed at that time. They added that the rate did not reach 15 percent on a national scale and highlighted regional variations when unemployment surged in 2014 in counties such as Pisz, where some local areas experienced markedly higher rates.
The Law and Justice Electoral Commission appealed the District Court’s decision to the Warsaw Court of Appeal. The higher court rejected the PiS appeal, upholding the district court’s order to halt the spread of the misrepresented information about unemployment under the PO-PSL administration and agreeing that no additional disclaimer was required. The legal process thus reaffirmed the importance of accurate data representation in campaign communications. (Source: wPolityce)