Prime Minister Donald Tusk – a well -known enthusiast of the European Union – announced a program that can be summarized as “Poland First”.
“The era of naive globalization ends. If we want to achieve economic successes, build a safe state, we must clearly say that Poland in this increasingly ruthless egoist competition in world markets, fronts of war, will not be a naive partner” – said the head of the Polish government.
It is not difficult to understand what he means. The world turned right, leading leaders no longer hide that they do not mean global economic development – and that they want to focus on their countries. Poland, as a medium player on the world stage, must adapt to this. What prescription does Tusk propose?
Repolonization
“Time to rebuild the national economy, repoloning the Polish economy, market, capital” – said the head of government.
An ambitious announcement, of course the question about what its implementation will look like. The head of government said that he demanded strict reporting from all orders and investments in state -owned companies. The reports are to include this “how the policy of preference for Polish capital and Polish entrepreneurs is implemented.” Tusk also added that the task of state -owned managers of companies – above all energy – is to take care of the interests of Poles, and “not necessarily maximizing the profits of the State Treasury company”.
The announcement of repolonization can be considered on the one hand ambitious, and on the other – as modest. Ambitious – because even the Eurosceptic PiS did not focus so much on the repolonization of the economy. At the same time, the plan is quite modest – because it is difficult to say for now how the prime minister would like to achieve all this. The head of government talked about a “difficult” meeting with managers of key companies in this matter. However, he did not change the outline of the repolonization plan. So we are not sure whether this repolonization is to be more a political slogan or an announcement of some wider, more detailed plan.
It is no secret that the state molochs are tangled in a network of connections – and their employees do not necessarily like changes. Therefore, the will of the prime minister and his managers do not have to mean a fast way to repolonize their investment.
A few specifics – and a few problems
The head of government said that PLN 53 billion from the already implemented investment in the first nuclear power plant in the country must go directly to Polish companies, and this task was received by the Polish company nuclear power plants. And again – this is an ambitious plan, but in some respects also modest, taking into account that the first such power plant can cost almost PLN 200 billion.
The issue of atom shows the limits of repolonization. Because subcontractors can be from Poland, but the technology and the main contractor (i.e. the Westinghouse-Bechtel consortium), they come from the USA. You can't hear about the Polish atomic program.
Another concrete concerns the supervision of the development of the Sławków logistics terminal. This, as the prime minister assured, will be 100 % Polish. This is an extremely important object that can become a hub for companies rebuilding Ukraine. One can get the impression that the prime minister does not speak more in this matter than he says. The head of government said that many companies “sharpened their teeth” for this place – suggesting that they were also foreign companies. Which companies? What could result from such attempts? We didn't hear it.
The next concrete concerns Rafako, a great company that declared bankruptcy last year. The current contractor of energy blocks and a manufacturer of energy equipment is to now operate – according to the prime minister's idea – in the arms industry. “We decided to invest some money there to keep this place,” the prime minister added. And he noted that in Silesia such places where the production can be retrained “there is a lot of”. Again – an ambitious plan, but barely outlined by Donald Tusk. There are no details yet.
The reinforcements are similar to the atom – the issue shows the limits of repolonization. Because even if a thriving arms company can be made with Rafako, we will still have to buy most of the weapons for a long time. We lack not only plants producing advanced weapons (like tanks, aircraft, anti -aircraft systems …) – but even factories producing basic artillery ammunition.
The rest of the article is under video material
Deregulation
In addition to repolonization, the element of Tusk's new economic plan is to be deregulation. This is nothing new. The head of Inpost Rafał Brzoska has been preparing a deregulation package since February this year.
During Tuesday's speech, the head of government also announced that on Thursday the first, massive deregulation package would be presented. Perhaps there will be more specifics here soon than in the case of repolonization.
The stock exchanges respond to the prime minister
As you would expect, Rafako launched after Donald Tusk's speech. The quotations of the Polish Energy Group behaved completely differently. The quotations fell strongly after the prime minister said that State Treasury companies, also listed on the stock exchange, do not necessarily have to maximize profit, but are to serve citizens. From the perspective of owners of shares of these companies, this is not a positive direction.
There were already great plans for the economy
Politicians often announced great economic plans in the past. In 2008, Prime Minister Donald Tusk shocked the economic world when he announced in Krynica that the goal of his government is to enter the euro area in 2011. As you know, nothing came of it, in 2025 the prospect of adopting the European currency (also in the context of repolonization of the economy), seems very distant.
Probably the most ambitious economic plan of recent years was, however, the “Polish order” of Mateusz Morawiecki, which was presented in 2021. In the intention, the project was to rebuild the economy after Pandemic, but also to start investments and influence many key areas of life (taxes, pensions, housing, health …). Morawiecki's program had many interesting assumptions, although today it is associated primarily with gigantic chaos, especially when it comes to changes in taxes.
Author: Mateusz Madejski, Business Insider Polska journalist
