Where to get billions for the army? Poles divided between the EU program and NBP profits

51 percent respondents support Poland's use of EU loans from the SAFE program for the purchase of weapons for the army – according to a CBOS survey. In turn, 46 percent supports the president's idea to finance the purchase of military equipment from the profits of the National Bank of Poland. 17% support both projects. subjects.

On Monday, CBOS published the results of a survey on two projects to obtain additional funds to finance the Polish Army and other services responsible for national security – the EU SAFE loan program, the implementation of which was announced by the government, and a project envisaging the use of funds from the profits of the National Bank of Poland for this purpose. The latter proposal was presented by President Karol Nawrocki and the President of the NBP, Adam Glapiński. Last week, the “amended” draft of the presidential bill prepared by PSL was submitted to the Sejm.

As for the EU SAFE, it enjoys support of 51%. respondents, of which 36 percent “strongly” support the program, and 15 percent “rather supports it.” 9 percent is “rather against” and 27 are strongly against EU SAFE. 7 percent have not heard about the SAFE program at all, and 6 percent there is no clear opinion on it.

As CBOS notes, “the president's veto practically did not change the attitude towards SAFE. The discussion taking place in recent weeks has resulted in a stronger crystallization of opinions. More people than in the previous survey have strong opinions on this subject,” notes CBOS, citing data from a similar survey from the end of February, where 29% “definitely” supported SAFE and 23%. “rather” supported the program. In turn, 11 percent in February it was “rather” against, 24 percent. – “definitely” against.

Pracownia points out that “attitude towards SAFE depends on political orientation and party sympathies.” “While participation in it is supported by 84% of respondents declaring left-wing political views and 59% defining them as centrist, the majority of those identifying with the right-wing (65%) are against it. This is reflected in the electorates. Voters of the Civic Coalition and the Left, as well as supporters of the Razem party, are quite clearly in favor of using a loan under the EU SAFE program. In the electorates of right-wing parties, they have a clear advantage opponents of participation in the program,” we read in the CBOS press release.

The study shows that the EU SAFE enjoys support of 98 percent. KO voters (2% are against), 87% Razem voters (2% are against) or 78% New Left voters (12 percent are against). However, 87 percent are against it. electorate of the Confederation of the Crown of Poland (9 percent are in favor), 79 percent of Confederation voters (13 percent are in favor) and 69 percent PiS voters (18 percent in favor).

According to CBOS, President Nawrocki's proposal is a bit more controversial, however – as we read, “more people declare support for this idea (46% in total) than are against it (37%). Every tenth person has not heard of the proposal to finance the purchase of weapons from the profits of the National Bank of Poland.”

23% of respondents “definitely” support the presidential project. respondents, the same number are “rather” in favor. 14 percent are “rather” opposed, and 23 percent is “strongly” against. “In the electorates, the voters of Law and Justice are most favorable to this solution, but it is also supported by the majority of supporters of both Confederations. The greatest number of opponents of financing military purposes from NBP profits are among the electorate of the main ruling party – KO. Opposition also prevails among supporters of the New Left and Razem voters,” CBOS points out.

79 percent PiS respondents are in favor of the presidential initiative (8 percent against), as are 63 percent. KKP voters (29 percent against) and 55 percent Confederation voters (32 percent against). 52 percent New Left voters oppose the idea of ​​financing defense from the profits of the National Bank of Poland (39%). In the case of Razem voters, 48 ​​percent are against and 33 percent are in favor. The most opposed to the presidential initiative are KO voters, among whom 67 percent is against, and 23 percent – for.

“Both sources of armament financing are perceived as competitive with each other. This means that supporters of one method of financing the purchase of military equipment are usually against using the other one,” notes CBOS. “Taking into account the answers to both questions, it follows that 17 percent of all respondents declare support for both sources of armament financing, 35 percent – only for SAFE, and 29 percent – only for the proposal to use NBP profits. 8 percent of respondents are against both of these solutions,” we read.

As added, the most open to both proposals for financing armament are supporters of the left-wing parties: Nowa Lewica and Razem, while the most opponents of both solutions are among the electorates of the WiN Confederation and the Confederation of the Crown of Poland. “Only one of the solutions is most often supported by supporters of the Civic Coalition on the one hand, and supporters of Law and Justice on the other,” notes CBOS.

The CBOS survey was conducted between March 23 and 25 using telephone interviews (CATI – 80 percent of interviews) and online interviews (CAWI – 20 percent) on a sample of 1,000 adult residents of Poland. (PAP)

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