Does Kaczyński have ties to building sector?
The daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza has published a recording in which the leader of Poland's ruling PiS party, Jarosław Kaczyński, apparently discusses the failure of plans for a skyscraper in Warsaw which was to be constructed by a company with which he has ties. Is Poland's government unbiased in its economic policy-making?
Oligarchy and politics in cahoots
Gazeta Wyborcza sees the revelations as a sign of an ailing system:
“For years we tried to build up a system that regulates the corporate interests of politicians. We wanted a civilised state in which politicians, free of personal economic interests, are impartial arbitrators who settle disputes between the business lobbies. We didn't want Poland to become a country in which the oligarchy rules together with the state. The principle of public party financing served this purpose. The ruling party is playing an economic game in which politicians can be millionaires and not have to disclose their tax returns because officially the companies belong to someone else.”
Nothing but hot air
WPolityce.pl finds the reports ridiculous:
“The idea that Kaczyński is a property shark (another Trump, as it were) is laughable. If the PiS chairman really were a wheeling-and-dealing fat cat - as Gazeta Wyborcza is trying to suggest - he would have built a forest of skyscrapers in Warsaw during his many years in politics. But so far he hasn't built a single one. ... Of course, the readers of the Wyborcza live in a different reality, which is why they don't understand why the publication of the tapes has turned out to be much ado about nothing.”