Senator Grzegorz Bierecki, presenting a minority's proposal to the budget bill for 2026, spoke of a "historical" budget which for the 3rd time in a row brings a immense deficit and evidence state debt. He stressed that Poland is being pushed into the way of increasing debt, from which "turnback" will be very difficult. He warned that the burden of current financial decisions would fall on future generations and straight hit Poles' portfolios.
Government plan: taxes up, real benefits down
– We are dealing with a mostly historical budget. This is simply a minute in the past of Poland, which will most likely be written down and everyone who participates at this minute will be recorded in the past of our country. This is the budget that it is the 3rd time that it has a immense budget deficit. It's a budget. which makes the deficit of Poland and its debt scope historical heights. Will it be possible to turn back from this path? That's what the next years will decide. I would be certain that Poland would turn back from this path, which leads to a gap if parliamentary elections were held in spring. I'd know Poland will not be managed by people who have no plan to govern Polish financeseither they have a plan, which is demolition and creation. threats to the existence of a sovereign Polish state. I'm saying this very powerfully and clearly so that you will remember erstwhile you make a decision, By voting on this budget, so that you will remember that we are not talking about numbers that are irrelevant to Polish portfolios, that we are not talking about numbers that are irrelevant to the future of Poland. This burden of deficit, this burden of large debt, the structure of this debt will affect the future of our country – This is Senator Bierecki.
The politician referred to the medium-term budgetary and structural plan for the period 2025-2028, which he stressed was not the subject of a parliamentary debate.
According to the Senator, the document, in his strategical assessment, provides for the repelling of real financial consolidation for the following years erstwhile the current government will no longer rule. This means in practice "greater fiscal adjustment", i.e. higher taxes and lower benefits.
He indicated, among another things, the maintenance of the PIT thresholds and the amount free at rising wages, the return of the standard VAT rate on food, the limitation of shields on energy, and the freezing of 800+ benefits and household programmes at nominal value, which he said contradicts the promises of valorisation.
Estimated gross and "highest deficit in Europe"
The Senator recalled a letter from the Finance Minister of 11 December ordering the suspension of expenditure in the end of 2025, which has Save the budget. According to Bierecki, Overestimation of income would amount to about PLN 50 billion, and after cuts it is inactive close to 30 billion.
In his opinion, this is another year that shows the decline in taxation recovery and the government's "inability" in financial management. According to the document, Poland presently has the “highest budget deficit in Europe” and compares 2 years of government of Tusk with 8 years of predecessors – according to his calculations in this short period the debt increased by over PLN 529 billion, with 305 billion in the erstwhile decade:
“We start this year in a situation where we already know that there was a crucial overestimation of income for 25 years, and we start 26 knowing that it was an overestimation of income. If it had not been for the minister's letter prohibiting the implementation of the budget expenditure, this deficit would have been even greater. This overestimation would be even bigger. According to calculations that are publically available around 50 billion would be missing in 25. Thanks to your writings, the minister knows that she will be missing and overestimating about PLN 29.4 billion. This is another year in which gross is overestimated, in which there is simply a lower taxation impact, another year that shows the government's inability to function in the field of public finances. This, of course, results in an expanding destabilisation of state financesbecause we have in Poland as a consequence of the highest budget deficit in Europe. The highest budget deficit in Europe – The senator said.
“How do 2 years of Tusk’s regulation go to 8 years of the previous? Let me remind you that for 8 years the deficit increased by PLN 305 billion, and for 2 years the government managed to make 529.2 billion. If you act at this rate, you will surely bring this country to ruin. You've already led – He was a politician.
No major investments and CPK dispute
In speech Senator pointed out the deficiency of key projects in the list of multiannual programmes to the budget. It listed the Central Communication Port (with various names, including Port Polska), motorways, bypasses and national roads, calling government press conferences "empty PR" not supported by a single euro in the budget.
Regrettably, he besides pointed to no backing for the extension of the railway terminal in Małaszewicz, which, according to erstwhile plans, was to bring up to PLN 50 billion to Poland over the decade.
“We already have a two-year hold in the implementation of this task and I want to tell you that there is no task in 26 and there will be no and there will be no gross from it.” The senator said.
The allegation of unconstitutionality and conflict with courts
One of the strongest threads was question of the unconstitutionality of the budget law. Senator Bierecki cited the letter I president of the ultimate Court, which points to violation of the rule of the independency of courts through the way justice is financed.
In his opinion, decisions on budgetary cuts were politically motivated and the amendment on the date of entry into force of the budget from 1 January was intended to make it hard for the Court to recover rapidly the funds for the outstanding remuneration of the judges:
– This was raised by the First president of the ultimate Court in a letter which she sent to your marshals and which I received from the Committee on Budgets and Finance. This budget violates the independency of the courts. It violates the independency of the courts. And it violates consciously and with complete nonchalance, due to the fact that on the committee of finance we could observe how the courts in Poland took money. The amendment we discussed at the committee assumed that the money would be taken from the president by 3 million and could be utilized for another purposes, right? But in the course of the discussion, the senator president changed his head and took the Constitutional Court and took the National Judicial Council. Just like that, not the president, just the courts, right? So this violation we're talking about is conscious, nonchalant, politically motivated and all the more unconstitutional. All the more unconstitutional due to the fact that it is besides based on bad intentions – said the senator.
Defence outside the EU deficit and cost of ETPC judgments
In the following part of the debate, the Senator asked president Kazimierz Klein about the way the European Union counted the deficit. Klein explained that while we are talking about the full budget deficit, national defence spending is excluded from EU indicators, which is to be clarified in item by the Minister of Finance.
He besides referred to the costs of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU – a full of EUR 681.2 million was estimated by the ministry, any of which is paid straight from the state budget and any deducted from EU grants to Poland. The calculation includes decisions signed by both president Andrzej Duda and Karol Nawrocki.
Court cuts, debt spirals and "deadly corkscrew down"
In the next part of the debate on the budget bill, Senator Alexander Swede asked whether the amendments to the majority that strongly reduce the backing of non-political institutions (SN, NSA, NIK, RPO, KRRiT, CBW, IPN), were discussed at the committee and is the number proposal trying to reverse it?
Senator Bierecki confirmed that The reductions were included in the amendments adopted by the committee by a majority and were referred to as "non-chalance" against the constitutional autonomy of the judiciary.
He recalled the position of the 1st president of the ultimate Court, who assessed these cuts as unconstitutional, as the state has a work to supply the judges with a decent remuneration, and the courts with the means essential for the real performance of tasks.
According to Bierecki, without this the regulation of law becomes "illusory".
In consequence to further questions, Sweden Bierecki presented a black script of the consequences of rising public debt. In 2026, the cost of the debt service itself is expected to be over PLN 90 billion, and in the debt management strategy, the share of these expenditures in the budget increases annually. He warned that, in the context of this strategy, all PIT and CIT income could be "eaten" by debt interest and that debt calculated according to EU standards would scope 69.6% of GDP.
Senator pointed out that abroad debt is increasing, interest flows to abroad institutions, which increases the hazard of marketplace blackmail, as in Greece. He called it "a fatal downward corkscrew”, where any deterioration of the rating means more costly borrowing, higher taxes and lower benefits for citizens.
Financial Heritage and PIT dispute
Senator Stanislaw Pawlak accused the opposition of ignoring the state of finance in which the fresh government took over: advanced inflation, the necessity to pay off hidden commitments, the underestimated budget for 2024 and the extra-budget system. According to his estimates, even PLN 140 billion of deficit could be avoided present if the erstwhile squad did not leave specified a "mine".
Bierecki replied that already erstwhile adopting the budget for 2024, he warned against undervalued VAT receipts, but the Minister of Finance of the Tusk Government then assured that the calculations were correct.
He added that it was the decisions of the current coalition to change the PIT strategy and shift gross to self-government that limited the gross to the central budget – PIT's share of state income decreased, according to his calculations, from about 15.7 percent in 2024 to 4.7 percent in 2025.
Senator Bierecki argued that if it were truly "so bad", the government would not have decided on specified a costly reform.
"Life at the expense of grandchildren" and a informing to Senators
Summing up further questions, Senator Bierecki reiterated that the budget for 2026 is "a budget of risk, chaos and debt", and 3 years of Donald Tusk's government are expected to rise public debt by at least PLN 1.1 trillion. He pointed out that The already planned deficit is record, and real can be even higher erstwhile there will be a request for amendments.
He appealed to the senators to make them aware that theirs The vote concerns not only current policies, but the stableness of the state and its sovereignty in the coming decades. Voting in favour of the bill was described as an approval for "living at the expense of its grandchildren" and the introduction of Poland into a "road to the abyss", from which it will be very hard to turn back.
