“In the case of such contracts, the value of the budget for lobbyists and the entire process leading to the signing of the contract amounts to between 2 and 5 percent of the contract value. That means several billion zlotys will go to various people, media outlets, experts, specialists, retired generals, generals who will soon leave the service and take up new jobs, and members of the broadly understood commentariat,” this is how Confederation MP Przemysław Wipler described the “promotional” budget of the SAFE program.
Given the amount of the SAFE loan for Poland, the mentioned costs would range from 3 to over 9 billion PLN for broadly defined propaganda.
Przemysław Wipler of Confederation spoke on TV Republika about the details of the SAFE project. He pointed out that he had not received a response from Finance Minister Andrzej Domański regarding the source of the tens of billions of zlotys that Poland would allegedly have to bear if it financed arms purchases differently than through the SAFE loan.
“I approached Minister Domański. Since he claims that rejecting SAFE and financing military purchases from other sources would mean costs of 30 to even 50 billion zlotys, I wrote to him – please kindly disclose the analyses and the model according to which you calculated this, because that model exists like the yeti. I would like to see it. I have not received a response. When the 21 days for a reply pass, I will go to court, because I requested this as public information. If the government has analyses, estimates and calculations, it should show and explain them to citizens, and especially to MPs, explaining where these huge, round figures – used to terrorize and frighten us into buying their narrative – come from, so that we quickly incur gigantic debt without real benefits for the economy and lose the chance to build our own production capacity” Wipler said in an interview with Michał Rachoń.
The host also asked about the budget for influence operations – lobbying, political and media-related – connected to the SAFE loan.
“In the case of such contracts, the budget for lobbyists and the entire process leading to signing the contract amounts to 2 to 5 percent of the contract value. That means several billion zlotys will go to various people, media outlets, experts, specialists, retired generals, generals who will soon leave the service and take up new jobs, and the broadly understood commentariat. When I hear that all military experts are applauding with their ears and feet, saying SAFE is fantastic, it is precisely because instead of pouring snacks into the trough, someone poured caviar and set up barrels of good champagne so that everything goes smoothly once it is finalized and signed. Future governments will repay these debts and quietly absorb the negative consequences of contracts concluded behind closed doors. That is what this is about. The four largest consulting firms in Poland have a combined budget smaller than the budget that will be allocated to finalizing all these contracts – and these are the largest firms in the world,” said the Confederation MP.
He added that this is money “for media, for trade fairs, advertising, social media”.
“This is a gigantic battle over gigantic money”, Przemysław Wipler stressed.
Assuming that the SAFE loan for Poland amounts to €43.7 billion, which at the current exchange rate of 4.22 PLN per euro equals approximately 184.3 billion PLN, 2 percent of that sum is around 3.7 billion PLN, while 5 percent exceeds 9.2 billion PLN. According to Wipler’s calculations, this would be the range of the SAFE program’s “promotional” budget for Poland.
Wipler also added that the profit margins on products covered by SAFE reach “several hundred percent”.
“Producing something costs X, but delivery at the prices the government is willing to pay is three to five times higher. It is like buying a product not from a wholesaler but from a hotel bar. This should explain to Poles what this battle is about, why it is so aggressive and why such harsh words are used as ‘traitors’ and ‘renegades,'” the MP indicated.
“We must remember the pressure the president will face. Enormous money is involved to ensure that these funds are spent now, immediately, at the peak of the price cycle, and that everything becomes irreversible. We must tell everyone who will sign these contracts – at present, the people who signed contracts for vaccine purchases – unnecessary vaccines, at gigantic prices, in unnecessary quantities – that was also an EU program – ‘we bought vaccines from you, and now you must buy them back from us and repay them even if you do not need them.’ It is the same mechanism, and many people made money on it, and many people are set to make money again. If the president does not sign this agreement, many of those signing contracts will hesitate, because in a dozen or so months there will still be life ahead and a real risk that they could be held accountable for acting to the detriment of the State Treasury and for economic mismanagement,” he added.