Rural standards of living should match central Warsaw, says ruling party in appeal for rural vote

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has launched a renewed appeal to the Polish countryside ahead of next year’s elections, with PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński pledging to bring rural standards of living up to the same level as in the centre of Warsaw, Poland’s capital and wealthiest city.

“The Polish countryside, Polish agriculture, you have proved yourselves in this difficult time,” said Kaczyński during a meeting in Przysucha in central Poland. “Agricultural production provides us with food security and growing exports. This is a great achievement.”

The leader of the national-conservative PiS argued that his party had done much to fulfil its promises to support rural areas since coming to power in 2015, but admitted that there was still more to be done.

“There should be equality between the countryside and the city,” he declared. “So that the standard of living in the countryside or in a small town would be the same as in the centre of Warsaw.”

Kaczyński also noted that the recent migration of people from big cities to more rural areas has often “led to conflicts, attempts to introduce restrictions…[and] legal problems”. It “creates a situation in which the farmer is not the owner of his own village”.

He pledged that his party would ensure that farmers would be “able to carry out [their] hard work, often night work, to the full, without any restrictions”, referring to Poland’s ban on making noise after 10 p.m., which can hinder agricultural work.

The PiS leader also said that various types of abuses against farmers, including in the courts, would be “curbed”. “We will deal with the litigation that is taking place against farmers,” he said, without explaining the nature of these “abuses”.

Both Kaczyński and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who also spoke at the meeting, announced that the party would present a comprehensive programme for the Polish countryside in six months’ time. However, they and agriculture minister Janusz Kowalczyk did unveil some specifics.

They included a proposed increase in fuel subsidies for pig producers – from 1 zloty to 1.20 zloty per litre – and increasing subsidies for bee colonies from 20 zloty to 50 zloty, as well as funds for beekeepers to purchase equipment.

“Sometimes we underestimate the role of bees,” said Kowalczyk. “If, God forbid, bees were to become extinct, if we would not take proper care of them, we would have huge losses in the environment, but also in agriculture.”

Kowalczyk added that he wants pensions for farmers and other workers, which are currently paid by different institutions, to be valorised equally. He also noted that the government has organised a special coal pool for farmers so that they, as well as the processing industry, have access to coal at moderate prices amid the current energy crisis.

Although PiS has in the past built much of its political success on the back of winning votes in more conservative rural areas, it has recently seen a series of protests by farmers, who claim that the government is not doing enough to support them.

Near the venue where PiS’s leaders were speaking, activists from Agrounia – an organisation that has led the farmers’ protests – gathered to watch a live broadcast. They chanted “You have failed, you have failed”, reported industry news service Tygodnik Poradnik Rolniczy.

“What do you know about agriculture?” said Agrounia’s leader Michał Kołodziejczak, referring to Kaczyński, who was born in Warsaw and has spent most of his life living there.

He pointed out that a number of the promises made, such as an agricultural guarantee fund or the possibility of agricultural work being allowed to take place after 10 p.m., were already declared by PiS in 2014. Kołodziejczyk also called the agriculture minister “a liar, a lazy man and a cheat”.

During a speech at the PiS event by Janusz Wojciechowski, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Kołodziejczak said he was “sick of watching the lies” and then one of Agrounia’s activist threw the TV broadcasting the event out of a window.

“The Law and Justice party needs to be thrown away in the same way as this TV. Don’t believe a word they say,” said Kołodziejczak.

Main photo credit: MRiRW (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.