Poland’s public debt doubled under previous government: Deputy PM
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
11.05.2016 17:28
Poland’s public debt more than doubled under the previous government, Development Minister and Deputy PM Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.
Vizepremier Mateusz Morawiecki. Bild: PAP/Paweł Supernak
Morawiecki was addressing parliament as part of a report in which the current conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government summed up the eight years the centrist Civic Platform (PO) and the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL) held power until 2015.
Morawiecki said: "When PiS left government in 2007, public debt amounted to PLN 511 billion (EUR 115 billion, USD 132 billion). Today it is more than PLN 900 billion, but at the same time you consumed PLN 160 billion from open pension funds [OFEs]… You increased public debt by over 100 percent."
PO leader Grzegorz Schetyna accused the government of “lying” in its report on Wednesday.
Jakub Stefaniak, a spokesman for the PSL, said a similar report could be drawn up critical of the Law and Justice government and its election promises.
"During [PiS’s first] 100 days in power, the retirement age was to have been lowered, [income] free from taxes was supposed to be raised,” he said.
The Law and Justice party swept to power in October in a landslide election victory. (pk)
Source: PAP