The draft amendment to the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary presented by the Minister of Justice stipulates a return to the election of the judicial part of the Council by judges.
The Donald Tusk’s government submitted a new draft state budget for 2024 to the Sejm on December 19, 2023. Following rejecting of the budget implementation act by the president, the government presented a new bill on special solutions for the implementation of the budgetary act for 2024.
In 2022, public expenditure per capita amounted to almost 36,000 PLN, and per one working person – 79,381 PLN. All public spending is financed either by taxes we pay or by government-issued debt (which means higher taxes in the future). Many people, demanding the implementation of further social programs by the state, do not realize that it is associated with higher taxation of the people (now or in the future).
In a landmark ruling, an administrative court found it illegal to suspend a judge for her ruling. The judge overruled the verdict of the lower court because it included, in its composition, a person appointed at the request of the politicized National Council of the Judiciary. She was charged with questioning the status of the judge, and the president of the court ordered a month-long break in her duties.
The Sejm passed the Act on the establishment of the State Commission for the Study of Russian Influences on the Internal Security of the Republic of Poland in the years 2007-2022. The Commission is proposed to be a public administration body and will be tasked with disclosing alleged cases of widely understood acts of espionage or actions made to the detriment of the Republic of Poland committed by public officials under the influence of Russia.
The International Monetary Fund’s mission carried out an assessment in Warsaw on 14-24 March under Art. IV of the of the IMF Articles of Agreement. The mission pointed to the most important problems of the Polish economy and presented related recommendations. The Fund’s delegation pointed out that the most important challenge is to bring inflation down to the target (which upper band of deviations is 3.5%). Therefore, it becomes necessary to tighten fiscal policy this year.
Mateusz Morawiecki, during the recent press conference “Stable public finances in unstable times”, bragged that under the rule of PiS’ government “the [public] debt in relation to GDP will fall” and it will be the case “despite gigantic expenses during the pandemic, despite huge expenses on the anti-inflation shield.” He stressed that “there are no catches here, there are no special operations.”
The ongoing election campaign has become an opportunity for political parties to present populist solutions to problems that are not always real. One theme are the seemingly high mortgage rates. In reality, however, rates are much lower than the current and projected increase in prices and wages, which means that the burden on debtors would decrease even if they would not pay their instalments and the interest would increase their debt.
Freedom of movement is a very essence of liberal principles. Classical liberals argue that every individual has the right to live wherever they want. And wherever the individual decides to settle, they should enjoy the same freedom rights as residents and be treated equally by the law.
According to Jarosław Kaczyński, PiS’ government is not decidedly fighting inflation, not to repeat Leszek Balcerowicz’s alleged mistakes from the times of transformation: “We were making up for this shock for several years.” In reality, however, reforms of Leszek Balcerowicz turned out to be a huge success, and Kaczyński himself was once a supporter of radical solutions.
