The Polish Deal — a New Face or Just Different Makeup?

By announcing Nowy Ład (eng. the Polish Deal) Mateusz Morawiecki and Jarosław Kaczyński wanted to win back control over the country’s political life and regain pre-Covid momentum. Much has however changed, and the continuation of previous politics this time around might just not be able to do the trick.

Ever since the victorious 2015 campaign, the Law and Justice party (PiS) has mastered the language of innovation. Fashionable topics such as AI, electric cars, biotech inventions, and breakthroughs in child poverty eradication were often in use when talking about PiS’s economic policies. This along with a supposed end to the politics of the previous governments — such was the case with the 500+  family welfare program — were all present in Mateusz Morawiecki’s flagship Responsible Development Strategy, a document that was considered a cornerstone of the new administration.  New regulations and investments that followed contributed to the overwhelmingly positive economic outlook that shaped both the business and political cycles during the 2015-2020 period. The ‘investment-friendly’ face of the ruling party also made PiS seem more appealing to the non-ideological centrist voters as well as foreign investors.

Now, with the pandemic still at large and with new economic fuel worth dozens of billions of euros from the new European Financial Framework — PiS wants to employ the same tactics in order to boost the economy as well as its falling support under the guise of Polski Ład. 

The Polish Deal: new hope or new packaging?

During a political rally in Świdnik in late June Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that under Polski Ład close to 100 billion PLN worth of investment funds will be up for grabs for both private companies and public institutions. According to the PM, the benefits of the program will create up to 500 thousands new jobs and push yearly GDP growth over 5 per cent. However, after closer inspection ‘the deal’ looks new only on the surface.