Missing Out: Some Poles Left Behind Despite Economic Success
Poland, one of the hosts of this year’s European Football Championship, has been booming thanks to a rigorous modernization program. But not everyone is benefiting from the economic success. With rents climbing and the elderly complaining about lower pensions, resentment is on the rise.
Even though hundreds of wrinkles crease her face, Barbara Przybyz does not look like a poor woman. The 83-year-old has a well-kept permanent wave and wears a lavender-and-white blouse. A black handbag dangles on her arm. She explains that she worked as a regular employee of a major bank in Wroclaw, in western Poland. She hasn’t doesn’t have much left in old age. She now receives a monthly pension of 1,000 zlotys (€250/$310).
“I could not survive without the financial support of my daughter,” she says.
It’s a hot day in mid-May. Przybyz made the trip from Wroclaw to Warsaw by bus to protest in front of the Polish parliament. The trip was organized by the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) trade union. The legendary workers’ organization, which once drove the downfall of the Communist regime, gathered a few hundred people from all over Poland for the protest. They are supposed to be demonstrating against planned pension reform, which elected officials in the Sejm, or lower house Poland’s parliament, will soon vote on.
The government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk wants to raise the retirement age, which is now 65 for men and 60 for women, to 67. The move is part of an economic-modernization program that has been carried out for years by the country’s economically liberal leaders and that has earned the country international praise.
Poland has come through the financial crisis better than any other country in Europe. The economy has been growing steadily, producing a reasonably prosperous middle class. The European Football Championships, which will kick off in Warsaw June 8, will give the country an added boost.
But not everyone has been profiting from the economic miracle on the Vistula. Many have lost out — including those who are dependent on the state, such as senior citizens and nurses, whose salaries have not kept pace with the boom.