![]() ![]() The previously mentioned Abrams tank procurement, due to arrive in a few months’ time, will be the most substantial so far at a cost of 23 billion zlotys (5 billion euros). Patriot air and missile defence systems, F-35 stealth fighters, HIMARS rocket launchers, Black Hawk helicopters (made in Poland by Lockheed Martin) and even used MRAP vehicles from Afghanistan are just some of the military contracts running into billions of dollars that he has signed since becoming defence minister in 2018. Just the signature of Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, one of Kaczynski’s righthand men, will suffice.Īnd judging from his time in office, Blaszczak certainly likes putting his name on the dotted line, especially for products that have been “made in the USA”. ![]() The increased spending also does not require parliamentary approval, let alone a referendum, even for the largest procurement items. This suggests a government confident of revenue projections as well as its borrowing power.ĭespite the rising debt levels, both in government accounts and hidden in non-budgetary funds, which have mushroomed during PiS’s time in office, Polish leaders continue to tell the nation that security has no price and the country must spend whatever is needed.Īccording to the Defence Ministry, the military modernisation plan until 2035 has a price tag of 524 billion zlotys (115 billion euros), but details have not been made public. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polish economy has kept on delivering outstanding growth and tax hikes implemented under the PiS’s flagship “Polish Deal” policy – a package of measures aimed at benefitting the neediest in society ahead of the 2023 election. Yet for this government, money does not seem to be a problem. By comparison, Poland’s underfunded public health system receives about twice as much, leaving many to wonder how much an army double the size would cost taxpayers and how it could be funded. This year’s military spending stands at 57.7 billion zlotys, or 12.5 billion euros, which will consume 12 per cent of the country’s budget. While details of the latter need to be worked out, the PiS-led cabinet prides itself on being among NATO’s top spenders (2.2% of GDP in 2022). Key to this is the increase in defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2026, and an extra funding scheme which includes bonds, loans and leasing options. Hence Kaczynski’s push to expand and upgrade. “The security conditions have deteriorated so much that Poland, as a frontline state, has no choice but to radically re-arm itself and become one of the best European armies, in order to sustain itself alone under Russian attack, for a longer period, until NATO comes to help Poland,” Kaczynski claimed in October 2021, when announcing a new draft bill related to military expansion.Ī command exercise staged a year ago demonstrated that current military levels were insufficient to achieve that, with the Polish Armed Forces allegedly defeated in a table-top war game. Experts believe, rather, it is an attempt by Russia to wring concessions out of NATO about preventing Ukraine and Georgia from joining the military alliance.įor supporters of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS), all this was enough to justify the party’s leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, in declaring nothing less than a state of emergency in national defence. Towards the end of 2021, Russia began amassing 100,000 or more troops plus tanks and other heavy weaponry on the Ukrainian border with Russia and Belarus, on the back of unsubstantiated claims by the Kremlin that Ukraine and the Western powers, including the US, were planning some kind of “provocation”. In the summer of 2021, the autocrat began creating this new migratory route by tempting migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Minsk, then herding them across the border in retaliation for EU sanctions imposed after Belarus’s rigged 2020 presidential election, as well as to help serve Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal of destabilising NATO and the EU, security experts say.įears of a new Russian attack on Ukraine are also playing a role. The sense of heightened alert in Poland has been amplified by several events over the past year.įirst, there were the images of thousands of migrants storming Poland’s eastern border, part of a “hybrid war” conducted by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. ![]()
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