When German footballer Marco Reus was fined PLN 540,000. euro (approx. PLN 2.3 million) for lack of authorization, information about a record fine was spread around the world. A similar fate befell Finnish businessman Anders Wiklof, who was charged with exceeding the speed limit by 30 km/h. had to pay PLN 121,000. euro.
The logic of these regulations is simple: “financial pain” is to be felt to the same extent for a millionaire as for a worker earning the minimum wage. In Finland, the range of fines is enormous – from a symbolic 6 euros to six-digit amounts.
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Already in 2019, then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced a discussion on the proportionality of penalties. “When someone drives a Lamborghini or Ferrari, the punishment should be proportional,” declared the head of government at the time.
Mandate depending on the wealth of the wallet? This is what the experts say
Currently, the tariff in Poland is rigid. Road safety experts quoted by Forsal warn that For owners of luxury cars, a fine of PLN 2,500 is sometimes treated as a “cost of traveling faster”while for less wealthy citizens it is an amount that ruins the household budget.
Despite these announcements, the system has not changed, although the Police regularly point to Scandinavia as a model for effectively deterring road pirates.
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The Minister of Infrastructure responds
The current Minister of Infrastructure, Dariusz Klimczak, in an interview with Forsal, emphasizes that the government's priority is safety, and the ministry is gradually tightening the regulations. Among the new solutions he mentioned, among others: suspension of driving license for exceeding the speed limit by 50 km/h outside built-up areas (on single-lane roads) or zero tolerance for alcohol among young drivers.
When asked directly about the link between fines and earnings, the minister remains cautious, emphasizing that key decisions are the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior and Administration.
“We need to use a compilation of different types of methods and not believe that one method will bring us road safety” – explains Klimczak.
