Foreign interest groups won’t stop changes in Poland: PM

“The changes we are making are – for many influential groups, including those outside the borders of our country, difficult to accept – above all because their interests are affected, their influence is being limited,” Szydło said in a special televised address to the nation on Tuesday.

“Up until now, many foreign companies, banks and hypermarket chains have been paying disproportionately low taxes, and only to a limited extent shared the profits from their activities with Poles. We’re changing that.”

New taxes on hypermarkets and banks were key pledges by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party ahead of its landslide victory in the country’s October general elections. The taxes are designed to help the PiS government deliver on a swathe of generous spending promises.

In a recent interview with the PAP news agency, Finance Minister Paweł Szałamacha said that he would like to see the hypermarkets tax in force by 1 March.

“The PiS government is now being attacked for this very reason, because we are pursuing our programme effectively and with determination,” Szydło said in her address.

“We expected resistance and attacks from certain quarters, but we won’t give up. We won’t give up on repairing the state,” she added. (pk/rg)