“Instead of an economic stimulus – a gigantic scandal: yachts, tanning salons, outdoor parties, mobile coffee machines. A select few received the money, but every citizen will repay the loan. The funds were supposed to go toward investment, innovation, pharmaceutical security – but now there’s no money for anything!” wrote PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński on X. The head of the largest opposition party thus commented on the scandal related to the spending of the National Recovery Plan (KPO) funds.
Kaczyński on the KPO affair: “A gigantic scandal”
In his post, the PiS chairman emphasized that the December 13 coalition “has ruined the country’s finances, they can’t secure revenue for the budget, and now just look at what they’re doing with KPO money, which was supposed to drive the development of the Polish economy.”
“Instead of an economic stimulus – a gigantic scandal: yachts, tanning salons, outdoor parties, mobile coffee machines. A select few received the money, but every citizen will repay the loan. The funds were supposed to go toward investment, innovation, pharmaceutical security – but now there’s no money for anything! There’s not enough for the energy shield, the tax-free allowance, or investments in local governments” – the politician stressed.
Kaczyński added that “a large part of Poles has opened their eyes.” “I hope others will also realize what this government really is,” he concluded.
The scandal over KPO spending
The government’s website has published a map of subsidies from the National Recovery Plan (KPO), which shows the grants distributed to the HoReCa sector. The list includes many bizarre and controversial projects.
These include subsidies for a tanning salon in a pizzeria, a “house on the water” for business meetings, mobile coffee machines, a yacht, or funds to expand a company’s product line to include “nutritious non-alcoholic beer.”
One company received over 300,000 PLN for an e-learning platform to teach bridge. Some applications are even more absurd, as they only listed the company name as the project title – and still received funding for implementation.