Jaroslaw Kaczynski presents plans for a "secure Poland"; photo - PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Kaczynski, who laid out plans for the economy, eduction, health service and family policy, said his party would create “1.2 million jobs” in a “ten year plan to combat unemployment” - especially in rural and disadvantaged areas, and would create a “pro-investment tax plan”, whereby “if companies invest then they would not pay tax on that”.
The conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party has consistently trailed the ruling Civic Platform in opinion polls since the general election last autumn and Kaczynski will be hoping the effective re-launch of the party's policies will take advantage of a slip in popularity of Prime Minister Donald Tusk over the summer.
Kaczynski called for “stricter penalties against offenders” and this includes “those involved in Amber Gold”, the collapsed 'para-bank', which left thousands of customers owed millions of zloty after it collapsed in July and resulted in the major political scandal of the summer months in Poland.
Law and Justice will also be tabling a motion of no confidence in the Civic Platform/Polish Peasant's Party coalition.
Prime Minister Tusk responded to Kaczynski's speech on Sunday by saying that the proposals for the economy and social issues “did not take into account the finance crisis” currently ravaging economies in the eurozone.
“For the last four years [in which Civic Platform has been in government, Europe and Poland] “has faced the biggest finance crisis since the war, and each diagnosis and prescription which relates to the economy and finance, can not be abstracted from this event,” Tusk said.
He promised to present calculations on how much the Law and Justice plan would cost Poland on Wednesday.
“Listening to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, we are talking about tens of billions of zloty” he warned.
Government 'still on vacation'
According to Law and Justice spokesman Adam Hofman, these are constructive proposals, including policies on healthcare and retirement systems, tax, education and economy.
“These proposals concern issues of importance to all of us these days,” he said.
“Because it seems that […] the government has been constantly on vacation and the recent scandal with Amber Gold has clearly shown it does not work the way it should. There are more such scandals in areas other than finances and we have to change it and show that an alternative to such governing does exist.”
According media reports, Jaroslaw Kaczynski will not be putting himself forward for the post of prime minister in the next general election, scheduled for three years time.
It is though that Zyta Gilowska, the former finance minister in Jaroslaw Kaczynski's government (2005 - 07) will be named as the candidate for PM. (pg/di)