“President Karol Nawrocki and the President of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), Adam Glapiński, formulated their proposal in the most appropriate way possible,” said former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, referring to the idea of a “Polish SAFE at 0 percent.” In this way, he responded to a recording by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who argued that the central bank’s losses in recent years make the initiative impossible to implement. According to Morawiecki, “the prime minister got worked up and made a bit of a fool of himself.”
President Karol Nawrocki and NBP head Adam Glapiński announced on Wednesday the concept of a “Polish SAFE at 0 percent,” intended as an alternative to the EU’s SAFE program. The president stated that he would send invitations the same day to Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz for a meeting.
“If necessary, I will come forward with a legislative initiative,”
Nawrocki announced.
The idea has been criticized by politicians from the governing parties. On Thursday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk recorded a statement about the program. Addressing the president and the NBP president, the head of government said that “there is no time for schemes or gimmicks.”
“On Wednesday, I listened to your speech with growing astonishment. First of all, this offer, or this idea, that the National Bank of Poland would finance, alternatively to SAFE, a rearmament program worth tens of billions of PLN,”
he said.
Tusk cited a letter from Glapiński referring to the losses incurred by the NBP in 2024 and 2025.
“Most importantly, the president wrote, in capital letters, ‘it cannot be ruled out that the NBP will incur losses in the coming years.” So how is it then? Either there was never any money from the NBP for our governments because there are gigantic losses, and suddenly, after a visit to the president, some miraculous possibilities appear,”
he said.
“The Prime Minister got worked up and made a bit of a fool of himself”
Mateusz Morawiecki responded to the prime minister’s recording. The PiS vice-chairman assessed that “the prime minister got worked up and made a bit of a fool of himself.”
“Just as one cannot evaluate the work of the Fire Service by looking at its financial result, it is an absolute misunderstanding to assess the effects of a central bank’s actions through the prism of its financial outcome,” he stated.
“The National Bank of Poland is supposed to ensure the stability of the zloty, and it is doing so successfully, because inflation is within the target. The independence and sovereignty of the central bank mean that it has the right to issue unlimited liquid reserves, which are legal tender, as we know. Therefore, the central bank’s loss does not carry much significance,”
he said.
The former prime minister admitted that “it may sound a bit strange,” but assured that every macroeconomist would confirm it.
“The markets understand this. At the time when the NBP had losses, there was no need to pay more for our bonds. This is a short lesson on the balance sheet and income statement of the central bank, so that they can do a bit of additional training there at the Prime Minister’s Office,”
he added.
“President Karol Nawrocki and the head of the NBP formulated their proposal in the most appropriate way possible, and I thank them for it,”
he concluded.