“We are the fastest-indebted country in the EU, and one of the fastest-indebting in the world. These are the conditions under which we will have to implement these very ambitious, yet necessary ideas. To achieve this, we must once again return to and keep before us the same objective enshrined in Article 20 of the Constitution: the social market economy,” said Prof. Przemysław Czarnek, PiS candidate for prime minister, during the “Thinking Poland 2.0” congress.
Since 10:30 a.m., the Law and Justice congress “Thinking Poland 2.0” has been underway. Following speeches by PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former prime minister and party vice-chairman Mateusz Morawiecki, the party’s candidate for head of government, Prof. Przemysław Czarnek, took the floor.
Czarnek: Yes to development, because Poland comes first
“I would like to anchor all these diagnoses and proposals in the Constitution, as a lawyer specializing in constitutional economic freedoms. I know that the Constitution is formally in force today, according to those in power. It is in force, but it is not being observed by those in power, and that is an entirely different matter. Since it is in force, we must refer to it, and those who fail to comply with it today must be warned that such non-compliance carries consequences. And those consequences will be enforced,”
Prof. Czarnek declared at the very beginning of his speech.
“As regards the economy and the economic system, the Constitution contains straightforward provisions, most notably Article 20, which anchors Poland’s socio-economic system in the so-called social market economy. This model rests on three pillars. However, the entire concept is based on something that may now seem outdated, as the world has changed radically. It is rooted in the German ordoliberal concept of the social market economy, which led to Germany’s first ‘economic miracle’ shortly after World War II. There is no point in focusing today on the principles of this concept; it is certainly not socialist; it is market-oriented. What we should focus on are its original goals. The world has changed, and further radical changes lie ahead due to an industrial revolution that will lead us into the unknown. We must therefore look at the goal. Means can be adapted, but the goal remains the same,”
the PiS politician said.
Responding to the question of what a social market economy is, he indicated that “it means an economy entrusted to and serving society.”
“Even those original ordoliberals, the proponents of an ordered free market, understood this. That is what ordoliberalism is about: freedom ‘to,’ not only freedom ‘from,’ combined with responsibility for decisions made within economic entities. Not freedom without responsibility. These ordoliberals set one simple objective: Wohlstand für Alle, which means prosperity for all. Economic development is not an end in itself for the state. It has a purpose to provide prosperity for ordinary citizens. That is the aim of the social market economy. That is the aim of all the ideas that were just presented by Jarosław Kaczyński and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki regarding the future,”
he explained.
He emphasized that “at the very end of everything we must undertake, to repair public finances and to shift our economy onto modern tracks, as this revolution compels us to do. There is once again the same figure: the ordinary citizen, the ordinary Pole, for whom we must all work and for whom we must develop the Polish economy.”
He called for: “yes to development, because Poland comes first.”
“Today, we find ourselves in a situation we would never have wanted to face. We must recognize that we seek to regain power to once again make the economy a means of achieving prosperity for every ordinary Pole, at a time when the Polish state is being devastated, in every respect,”
Czarnek assessed.
He also recalled that during the rule of the United Right, “public debt decreased despite two ‘atomic bombs’ that hit us – COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Despite this, we reduced public debt by 2 percentage points relative to GDP, in the face of extremely difficult challenges, especially since 2020.”
“Today, those who have been in power for 2.5 years have already increased public debt by 11 percentage points relative to GDP. What lies immediately ahead, this year, means nearly PLN 2.76 trillion in public debt. That amounts to an increase of 17 percentage points relative to GDP compared to 2023. That is a chasm. We are the fastest-indebted country in the EU, and one of the fastest in the world. These are the conditions under which we will have to implement these very ambitious yet necessary ideas. To do so, we must once again return to and keep before us the same goal enshrined in Article 20 of the Constitution: the social market economy. All decisions, both macroeconomic and microeconomic, must be aimed at and oriented toward the welfare of the Polish people,”
he stressed.
