A survey conducted by SW investigation for “Wprost” was late published, which shows that as many as 54 percent of Poles support the thought of Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz to collect 800 plus non-working Poles. Only 26 percent are against it. The same poll conducted a akin survey in October 2024 for “Rzeczpospolita”. 53.7 percent of surveyed Poles were in favour of eliminating or reducing 800 plus, while 40.6% of respondents would like to keep the programme or increase the amount of the benefit. The conclusion is simple: most Poles want the 800 plus programme cut.
Award for “worker”, punishment for “unemployment”
So your leg slipped and you lost your job, which is not hard in a day of mass dismissals in smiling Poland? Or have you temporarily lost your ability to execute it for wellness reasons? We'll punish you for taking advantage. What is different is erstwhile you are a clever “entrepreneur” who steals money from KPO or everything takes “on an invoice”. For that, society will reward you with grants and social. For us Poles, benefits are not a tool to equalize opportunities, but increasing inequality.
The benefit is to be a reward for “industry” and its absence is to be a punishment for “leakness”. Even if the “working” is simply a clever exploiter, and the “lazy” is unlucky or lives in a place where it is not easy to work and the deficiency of access to aid only makes his situation worse. possibly that's why the KPO scandal didn't lower the support of the Civic Coalition.
Right after her explosion, I talked to a fewer people about liberal beliefs. My interlocutors argued that micro-entrepreneurs should be helped more than “unemployed children” due to the fact that then it is not aid, but “harmful publishing”. And the fear that “needs” will usage money for long-term hulking is absurd and irrational. In Poland You just can't live a decent life without a job., regardless of nationality.
Supporters of the current government are even more Darwinist
Certainly, “foreignness” is an additional argument for taking the benefit, as evidenced by the results of the IBRIS survey from January of this year, where as many as 88 percent of Poles request a simplification in this benefit for Ukrainian immigrants. However, the nation of the awarded and punished is not decisive. The classy aversion to poorness is definitely stronger than nationalism.
This passion connects the electorates of different parties. The IBRIS poll besides shows that 1 in 3 supporters of the current government are behind the removal of 800 plus unemployed Poles. To a lesser degree it concerns the right-wing electorate – according to an IBRIS survey for Radio Zet, only 14 percent of those voting for PiS and Confederacy want to take the benefit distant from the Polish unemployed. In particular, the PiS electorate can be defined, for Polish conditions, pro-social – another studies on the relation to the function of the state or progressive taxes indicate this. However, this may change given the enthusiastic reactions to the presidential veto.
Postulate to receive 800 plus Ukrainians PiS copied from Rafał Trzaskowski. This one, in turn, was inspired by the Confederation, which has late given a speech to the public debate on social policy and the function of the state. Jarosław Kaczyński and Mateusz Morawiecki They are increasingly opposed to Sławomir Mentzen, but the PiS must besides face social sentiments. Therefore, the actions of president Karol Nawrocki are frequently close to Confederates.
Taking 800 plus the Ukrainians, cutting up the branch we're sitting on?
There is no request for peculiar insight to realize that the workers are in a better economical position than the unemployed and have greater savings. The thought of diversifying beneficiaries in terms of the wealth of the portfolio is so very damaging, even if it is only for Ukrainians. Benefit can lose an unemployed Ukrainian or Ukrainian parent whose husband fights at the front, and he will inactive be taken by the 1 who, coming from Ukraine, founded business, household in Poland and prospered. late in Kielce, a company has not paid for work to immigrants, women have been unemployed and moneyless. Under the fresh law, they would besides lose 800 plus.
Taking distant non-working Ukrainians 800 plus this beginning of the gate to extend this regulation besides to Poles, especially if the Polish government will regulation KO in coalition with the Confederation. Following the presidential veto, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that this regulation should apply to all foreigners. This is all very destructive for Polish social policy.
Such an attitude perpetuates a harmful stereotype, according to which benefit is due only erstwhile you work your ass off and you do not get an episode of unemployment. He besides adds a brick to the misconception that a kid is not entitled to the benefit, but a parent who can misuse it. We forget that this is how we hurt children the most. On the occasion, the situation of Polish workers may deteriorate, due to the fact that those from Ukraine after losing their benefits will be even more desperate and willing to accept little favourable wage conditions.
In this situation, even taking the benefits distant from foreigners would be little harmful. It could be argued that the programme was intended primarily to service Poles and was designed long before the war, erstwhile migration from Ukraine was not so numerous, and must so be modified.
It wouldn't be fair, but at least it wouldn't perpetuate the nightmare stigmatization of the poor, which shifts the discourse on social policy towards Mentzen.
Do we request a conflict between Poles and Ukrainians?
Taking distant non-working Ukrainians 800 plus can have additional side effects – for example due to the fact that it fits into the atomizing spirit of neoliberalism. The Polish State will proceed to conduct neoliberal immigration policy – those working benefits will not lose, due to the fact that they are needed as inexpensive labour, and at the same time will gradually be cut off from their rights.
This may turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy of “braunists” about the increasing reluctance between Poles and Ukrainians. Here, the proverb “who gives and receives, it is in hell.” 1 thing is not to give the Ukrainians a benefit, but to give it and take it away. So is access to the wellness system. possibly that's what any people are hoping for, eventually, to have violent national conflicts?
To spite Zelensk, shall we strike the weakest?
At the same time, it is not hard to see that Polish-Ukrainian relations have undergone a diametric change since 2022. Ukraine is besides guilty of this – president Volodymyr Zelenski during the grain crisis He's done a lot.so that Poles feel that they do not receive adequate gratitude for their support. It is not essential to be a “lease” to see that Poland was not treated reasonably by the Ukrainian President.
This change affected the deterioration of Poles' relation to Ukrainians and prompted the anticipation of a more sovereign policy towards Ukraine. Politicians must number on this emotion, and empathy should not be the only signpost in abroad policy. However, they should find another tools than receiving the poorest support and diversifying beneficiaries. How is this expected to get Ukraine to compromise on many crucial issues for us?
And with extortions utilized by people who take benefits and do not stay in Poland, 1 can besides fight smarter than by throwing all the unemployed beneficiaries into 1 bag.
**
Bartosz Szczepalski – editor, copywriter and worker in the transport industry. Author of texts on employment, socio-economic issues in local and nationwide press. He published among another things in "New Citizen". a newsletter of public transport “Passenger”, a Weekly of the Institute of civilian Affairs and TVP Weekly. erstwhile associated with specified titles as: Echo of the Day, Extra Newspaper, writer Ambulance, Economicsaspoleczna.pl. In 2015–2019, the author of many interpellations and worker of the post office of the trade unionist and MP to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Bogdan Latosiński specialising in issues related to public transport and labour rights.
