The swearing-in of the presidential promises
Czeslaw Ryszka
We still have in mind the recent pompous announcements of the presidential candidate of the Civic Platform about giving money to almost all social groups and we can hear the government inclining the new ledger of the Presidential Palace to rethink the promises he made. It was in this spirit that Minister Michal Boni mentioned the necessity to raise taxes, which Bronislaw Komorowski must have disliked. During the presidential campaign he stated that raising taxes was ‘the worst solution.’ Will he as the President veto such a solution?
The government states officially that they lack 50 billion zloty. Economists double this sum. That’s why the swearing-in ceremony of President Komorowski was held in a doleful mood. It was easy to make promises to lure the voters and now it is more difficult to fulfil the promises. And one should mention that the results of the election unambiguously show that Komorowski’s promises fell on the good soil. Therefore, it is worthy to remember his most important promises: 1. for teachers – 30% increase in salary this year; 2. for the retired – revalorisation every year; 3. for students – 50% reduction of transport tickets; 4. for the army – keeping the level of 1.95% of GDP; 5. for farmers – keeping the special social insurance system; 6. for policemen and all uniformed services – keeping the present level of retirement allowances; 7. for all people – no increase in taxes; 8. for clerks – no cuts in expenses; 9. for patients – keeping the free health care; 10 for drivers – beginning of construction of 1,000 km of new roads and bypasses within 500 days of the presidency; 11 for women – gender parity in parties’ election lists; 12. for childless couples – in vitro fertilisation paid by the state. And additionally, withdrawal of the Polish forces from Afghanistan ‘a year before the Americans’; introduction of one mandate constituencies in the local elections, i.e. not electing local government from parties’ lists, and free motorways surrounding the cities.
All these miracles will happen within 500 days. I think they are only words because the minister of finances does not want to hear about the expenses to fulfil these promises at all. Apart from hiding the huge debts of our country in various funds he must deal with a reform of finances, which the Prime Minister will not agree to in the election year. All changes will be postponed. Consequently, we can expect only steering of emotions by the media that serve the Civic Platform, i.e. the application of Palikot’s method: the struggle against Law and Justice, the Fourth Republic of Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and the parliamentary group for the explanation of the plane crash at Smolensk will be more important than economy, the condition of the state finances or social matters.
It seemed that if the Civic Platform had won everything Law and Justice would not be the biggest threat and source of all misfortune. But the media, befriended with the Civic Platform, are trying to connect all evil with the Chairman of Law and Justice, even the gambling scandal in the Civic Platform resulted from the fault of the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA), i.e. its chief Mariusz Kaminski from Law and Justice backed it up, which is the main thesis of the report of the chairman of the ‘gambling scandal’ investigation committee Miroslaw Sekula according to whom the leak about the scandal came from the CBA to the media and there were no traces of any leak from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister to Mr Sobiesiak. And in Sekula’s opinion there was no gambling scandal at all because the corruptive bill was not passed. The meetings of Miro, Zbycho and Rycho had at the most nonstandard character. Generally speaking, Sekula’s report whitens the MPs of the Civic Platform and attacks Law and Justice. The truth has no importance in the report because the most important thing is to win the next local and parliamentary elections.
I am curious how the Civic Platform is going to delude the nation to keep fullness of power. I want to remind you that the promises won the Presidential Palace although the party did not care for the ‘chandeliers.’ Soon the media will get rid of the representatives of Law and Justice and will replace them with ‘apolitical’ managers and journalists. The archives of the Institute of National Remembrance have been already cemented but during the campaign the Civic Platform promised to open them. The Central Anticorruption Bureau has successes but its specialist weapon is given to the police. The foreign politics is flourishing; there are not quarrels with our neighbours and the only small trouble is the Russians because they do not want to give us the original black boxes. The situation in the health care services is improving because nobody goes on strike. We do not face the threat of Greece because we are still an economic leader in the European Union.
The Civic Platform is still to explain the plane crash at Smolensk. And they must fulfil these unfortunate promises of the presidential election. But the Civic Platform hopes unlimitedly in their MP from Lublin who will certainly invent something more shocking that the words, ‘Lech Kaczynski has blood on his hands’, which will give his party more than 500 days of peace. If it were not the case he would not be the vice-president of the parliamentary club of this party and the most popular politician with the ‘apolitical’ journalists and ‘independent’ media.
"Niedziela" 32/2010