current problems in poland 2022

In addition, demonstrations against the abortion ruling in autumn 2020 and other demonstrations directed against the government were met with excessive police responses and often police violence. The cost of the interventions added up to about 13% of GDP and around 60 legal acts were created or changed. GRECO criticized the governments 20182020 anti-corruption program for a lack of transparency in the appointment and promotion of senior managers in the police and border guards, and highlighted that Poland had only implemented eight of 22 suggested reforms. All in all, the party system is variable, with other, smaller parties than PiS and PO appearing and vanishing from time to time on the left and right, and in the center of the political spectrum. But more intensive funding of the sector and engagement in adult learning is needed. Infection rates were moderate until early September, although the low rate of testing may have skewed the picture. The government introduced a bill on remote voting, a tool it had abolished just a few years earlier. The interest of the public in these files has always been comparatively low. Since the early 2000s, Polands party system has begun to institutionalize after several transformations and realignments. All this hampers consensus-building and the involvement of civil society actors in policymaking. The nation-state is fully accepted by all citizens as legitimate. In spring 2020, many observers contested the legality of the election of the state president under the conditions of the pandemic. In the context of the pandemic, several anti-crisis shields were adopted in parliament. The ruling of the politicized Constitutional Tribunal to impose a near-total ban on abortion instigated nationwide protests and civil society opposition. Poland does not participate in ERM II and, hence, does not meet the Maastricht criterion on exchange rate stability. In addition, the employers associations criticized the lack of real dialog, especially during the pandemic. Members of parliament are obliged to publish their income on the website of the parliament since November 2001. All in all, the priority of the government continues to lie in social and educational policies, both with nationalist undertones. Democratic consolidation finally began to take hold after 1997. Bodnar, who frequently criticized the governments rule of law and human rights abuses during his mandate, should have stayed in his position until the appointment of a successor. Meanwhile, national parliamentary elections of October 2019, as well as both the first and second round of 2020 presidential elections saw high levels of turnout (61.7%, 64.5% and 68.2%, respectively). Nevertheless, the Gender Inequality Index indicates some improvements for women (including the maternal mortality rate and representation in parliament) with Polands score increasing to 0.115 in 2019. However, specific support for democracy is lower.

The governments anti-pandemic response included measures to prevent poverty, such as short-term work, postponement schemes for housing credits and assistance to the elderly. Available instruments that could be used to plan and organize policy measures, such as regulatory impact assessments, strategic planning units, and stakeholder and expert consultation, are either not applied or only used to foster the ideological purposes of the government.

In the agricultural sector alone, about 50% of all workers are engaged in informal arrangements. Law and Justice (PiS) won a majority in the 2019 parliamentary election, though there was a slight discrepancy between vote share and seats won, as PiS together with its allies Porozumienie (Agreement) and Solidarna Polska (United Poland) won 43.6% of votes but 51.1% of seats. The structural constraints on governance are low, although governance has been challenged by the pandemic. Corrupt officeholders are supposed to be prosecuted according to Polish laws. Despite these commitments, there is still some resistance. Foreign trade is liberalized, with uniform low tariffs. As the whole judiciary is now under near-complete political control, judicial oversight of the government during the pandemic was very limited. One example was the promotion of Mariusz Kaminski. The economic implications were not too severe thanks to the implementation of several anti-crisis shields. Further amendments to the land law that eased restrictions for investors from non-EU member states were introduced in 2011. Absolute poverty has decreased in Poland but not exclusively because of the governments welfare policies. According to World Bank data, the share of non-performing loans has been decreasing, reaching 3.8% in 2019 which was slightly above the EU average of 3.7% (in 2017) but EU data indicate 6.1% for 2019. The year 1989 was the turning point in Polands transition from communism to democracy. Regarding the pandemic, the weak health care system is a structural problem for the containment of infections, especially since access to health care is not evenly distributed across the country. Institutional mechanisms for policy learning through regulatory impact assessments are hardly used in Poland.

In November, the prime minister announced the Financial Protection Shield 2.0 and made PLN 3 billion available for micro-enterprises (one to nine employees), PLN 7 billion for small and medium-sized enterprises (up to 249 employees), and about PLN 25 billion for large enterprises (250 employees or more). This conflict will continue to dominate Polands stance on international cooperation. They are also required to disclose any benefits that they or their spouses receive in a public register of interests kept by the speakers of Sejm and Senate. For 2021, the European Union forecasts inflation to rise to 2.5%. For PiS and its allies in power, clientelism has become a means of capturing voter support via the partys generous social policies and the support of individual politicians by offering access to relevant political positions. Through the Support the Senior (Wspieraj Seniora) program, the Ministry of Family and Social Policy offered a helpline and volunteer assistance. Yet, this does not necessarily mean that the governments policy proposals are developed in collaboration with international partners. Following the presidential elections, Deputy Foreign Minister Szynkowski vel Sk summoned Germanys Charg dAffaires to the ministry to protest against a series of articles in German media. Obstacles today include the slow and increasingly unpredictable functioning of the judicial system, and the continuing piracy of intellectual property, despite the government efforts to improve protections. However, there are cleavages between political parties and citizens about the extent to which Poland should consider itself a member of a multilevel and supranational political order. Regarding foreign investments, two problems have arisen in the last two years: uncertainty regarding legal enforcement due to the changes in the judiciary, and the complicated and frequently changing tax system. The PiS government launched several measures to combat the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, but these were not connected with structural or strategic reforms. Only the state-owned airline LOT withdrew from the agreement to buy the German holiday airline Condor in March 2020. Only regarding the vaccination program was there a consultation with experts which fed into the preparation and implementation of the program. Civil rights are codified in the constitution and used to be respected by all state institutions. The democratic transition provided an impetus for the development and mushrooming of civil society organizations over the last 30 years in Poland. Share this via Telegram The party system is highly polarized with the main cleavage running between PiS and PO (or KO, Civic Coalition as its electoral alliance is called), which has manifested in the sociodemographic features of their respective electorates. Kaczyski has made many important decisions himself and the standing of government ministers has been strongly dependent on their relationships with him. Poland also caught up with other more developed EU member states regarding productivity, although it is still at 63% of the EU average. Polands Gender Inequality Index (GII) score of 0.115 (2019) demonstrates further improvements for women in society, especially the maternal mortality ratio and representation in parliament. Womens rights groups reported an increase in reported domestic violence cases following Covid-19 lockdowns and movement restrictions, which resulted in some women and girls being trapped with abusers in the same household with limited possibilities to access help. The PiS government led by Mateusz Morawiecki prioritizes certain policy plans and announced several initiatives in their 2019 election campaign. Cities governed by the opposition received less money and mayors have complained about their limited ability to perform their public tasks. The strict quarantine measures, which at least by law required people to respond to an app several times a day and upload photos to prove that they are at home, were also questionable from the perspective of data privacy and protection. While the PiS government is eager to foster digitalization, the professionalization of administrative structures is still hampered by its political grip on bureaucracy. Additional out-of-pocket payments account for 23% of health care spending (the EU average is 16%). Air pollution is a severe problem in Poland, as shown by the European Air Quality Index. After a Europe-wide debate, the European Commission decided in July 2020 not to support town-twinning applications from such cities. People could vote by mail or in person, which generally worked quite well, but voters abroad reported lost postal ballots. At the beginning of 2018, Poland gained a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council for two years for the sixth time. Even though the government amended its strategy for hospitals that specialized on COVID-19 patients, it did not address the lack of specialized staff, respirators or medical equipment. Some 100 local regions and governments in Poland continue to label themselves as LGBT Ideology Free Zones. Following fears of losing EU funds, four Polish regions in September revoked their anti-LGBT declarations. The diversified export structure of the manufacturing sector helps to balance developments in trading partner countries. It aims to punish judges who question the judicial changes made by the government. The overall trade balance (goods and services) is slightly positive (exports constituted 55.5% of GDP compared to imports 52.0% in 2018). The freedom of association and assembly is unrestricted and constitutionally guaranteed, and the government generally respects the right to form and join associations. In general, the southeast of the country is more religious than the northwest. While the distribution of tasks and money between the national, regional and local levels of administration has always been an issue of political debate, this has become even more pronounced during the pandemic.

In August, Polands government notified the EU that it would dismantle the disciplinary chamber but failed to do so, prompting the European Commission in September to request that the CJEU issue daily fines for failing to comply with the courts order. The NGO Never Again (Nigdy Wicej) documented several incidents of xenophobia, violence, harassment and discrimination due to peoples origin or nationality.