In 2026, Poles will face a wave of price increases. Not only will electricity and heating bills rise, but so will the prices of fuel, food, services, and municipal fees. “The year 2026 will be a stress test for our wallets. Please recall the years 2016-2023: how much work there was and how unemployment fell,” said Daniel Obajtek, an MEP from Law and Justice (PiS).
“What is Tusk’s team preparing for 2026?”
Daniel Obajtek, an MEP from Law and Justice (PiS), published a video titled “What is Tusk’s team preparing for 2026?” In the recording, he warns of various increases that will have a very negative impact on Poles’ wallets. The politician pointed out that in the year now beginning, the following will become more expensive:
- Electricity - bills up by around 20 percent; the increases result from higher additional charges rather than the electricity price itself.
- Heating / heat - costs up by at least 25 percent; in his view, without protective mechanisms it could be even more expensive.
- Fuels - a systematic rise in prices due to increasing excise duty and environmental fees.
- Food and grocery products - a real increase in the prices of basic products by 12-15 percent; despite officially low inflation, prices are rising because of energy, transport, and processing costs.
- Services - a significant increase in service prices due to expensive electricity and higher labor costs.
- Municipal fees, e.g. water and sewage, waste collection - local governments will raise fees because of high energy costs and a lack of funds.
“The year 2026 will be a stress test for our wallets. Everything will get more expensive. Energy prices will definitely rise. This translates into fuel prices, because if fuel prices rise, then the prices of practically everything around us rise as well, including food products and broadly understood processing. As a result, you will actually have less money for ordinary, everyday consumption. And this will in no way drive the market or your pockets. You simply will not earn. If you do not earn, you will not buy. For sure, everything will definitely get more expensive,” Obajtek emphasized in the recording.
Referring to rising heating costs, he recalled that this would be linked to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). He stressed that “if there are no support mechanisms, then heating will rise by 25 percent and that is the minimum.” “So if you are paying 2,000 zlotys for heating, your bills will rise to 2,500 zlotys,” he warned.
He also drew attention to the fact that “it is said that inflation is generally low, but in reality, when you look and compare the basic products you buy, they are definitely rising more than the inflation rate.”
“Inflation is treated as a whole, but it is not broken down into factors, even in terms of basic food items. This increase will be significantly higher than what is reported in the inflation rate, because production costs will rise dramatically, which will translate into the unit price of the product,” he stated.
The politician also recalled the actions taken by the Law and Justice (PiS) government in the years 2016-2023.
“Please later recall the years 2016-2023, when the entire country was covered by investment processes, how much work there was, how unemployment fell. Please compare how strong Poles’ wallets were then, how much Poles spent at that time, and then compare it again with two years of the smiling coalition’s rule and see whether your wallets are not shrinking. Please stop thinking through a political key and a given television image. Ladies and gentlemen, start thinking with your own wallets,” he said.
He also addressed his compatriots with the following appeal: “Learn to count, calculate your expenses and on that basis assess politicians, not who shows them how. This really has no impact whatsoever on your wallet. Compare the times, add a map of who was governing Poland then, and see during which periods you lived better and during which periods you felt safer.” “Please compare the data, hard data, and do not deal with various kinds of rumors, setups, and spreading different heresies in various media, because this is not true – it is all falsehood and hypocrisy, and the truth is completely different,” he concluded.