2019-08-03 15:37 update: 2019-08-09, 18:59
Photo: PAP/Marcin Bielecki
Ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Saturday that there would come a time when the Polish Constitution would be changed so that it guaranteed "real democracy, real rule of law and real equality, which today is breached."
Speaking at a family picnic in Dygowo, north-western Poland, held under the slogan 'A good time for Poland,' as part of PiS's countrywide roadshow ahead of the autumn parliamentary elections, Kaczynski made reference to the 'Constitution' slogan he noticed being borne by some participants. He said the new constitution "will be clearly formulated, in such a way as to avoid any twisted interpretations."
"I won't announce it in these elections, because it's certainly still a long road, but there will come a time when we'll do it," he said.
The PiS leader also said that all Poles should have the same rights because Poland is united. He said he often heard that "the state has forgotten about us." Kaczynski added that looking over the last 30 years, first there was Leszek Balcerowicz's economic plan, which he said was unavoidable. "It was necessary to return money to Poland, prices, basic economic categories, because they didn't exist in socialism and it was not possible to conduct a sensible economy," he said.
But, he added, the plan had completely omitted the interests of millions of people, especially in provinces like northwestern Zachodnopomorkie, where he was speaking. "It was very painful," he said. "It was really a situation in which very many residents of these lands found themselves without work, without hope, often without a chance for their children either, without access to culture, with weak access to education."
He said the situation had especially affected villages and small towns. "It touched an enormous part of today's society," he said, and argued that the principle that, "we are all Poles, that solidarity and justice are an obligation, was broken then."
Kaczynski said there was no alternative to the market economy and that such an economy must be dominated by private ownership, but that did not mean that public assets should be sold off for nothing, without a plan for future prospects. He said assets had often been sold only to be destroyed.
He also praised the incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, and said he should be re-elected for another term of office, preferably in the first round of elections. He said that over the last four years the government had changed Poland and had done so for its citizens, which he described as a duty. "I believe that many among you were not convinced and I assure you that such a policy will endure, but if we are to maintain it we must have your support because only together can we keep it up." (PAP)
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