The latest Eurostat data place Poland among the EU countries recording the largest increases in public debt. According to Law and Justice MEP Marlena Maląg, this is the result of the current government’s policies. “This team is incapable of managing the state budget,” she told Niezalezna.pl. She added that “Poland’s situation is extremely dangerous.”
Eurostat data show that at the end of the first quarter of 2026, general government debt in the euro area stood at 88.9 per cent of GDP. A year earlier, the figure was 87.2 per cent. A similar trend can be seen across the European Union as a whole, where the average public debt-to-GDP ratio rose from 81.4 per cent to 82.9 per cent.
Poland among countries with the largest increases
A comparison with the first quarter of 2025 shows that the debt-to-GDP ratio increased in 19 member states and declined in only eight.
The largest increase was recorded in Finland, where the ratio rose by 5.5 percentage points. It was followed by Bulgaria, with an increase of 4.8 percentage points, and Poland, where the public debt-to-GDP ratio climbed by 4.5 percentage points. Significant increases were also recorded in Romania, at 4.3 percentage points, and France, at 4 percentage points.
Where is public debt the highest?
Greece continues to have the highest public debt-to-GDP ratio, at 143.5 per cent. It is followed by Italy at 138.9 per cent, France at 117.6 per cent, Belgium at 109.1 per cent and Spain at 101.6 per cent. In Poland, the ratio stands at 61.6 per cent.
At the other end of the scale are Estonia, with debt equivalent to 25.2 per cent of GDP, Denmark at 26.8 per cent, Bulgaria at 28.5 per cent and Luxembourg at 29.2 per cent.
At the same time, Eurostat noted that some countries reduced their debt-to-GDP ratios over the past year. The largest decline was recorded in Greece, where the figure fell by 9.4 percentage points. Significant decreases were also seen in Cyprus, at 7.4 percentage points, Slovenia at 4.8 percentage points, Portugal at 3.9 percentage points, Denmark at 2.4 percentage points and Spain at 1.7 percentage points.
Eurostat reported that the general government deficit in the first quarter of 2026 amounted to 3.1 per cent of GDP in both the euro area and the European Union as a whole.
In Poland, it stood at 5.9 per cent of GDP, the third-highest deficit in the EU after Bulgaria and Hungary. In the first quarter of 2025, Poland’s deficit amounted to 6.7 per cent of GDP, while in the fourth quarter of 2025 it reached 7.8 per cent.
Maląg tells Niezalezna.pl: The situation is dangerous
Niezalezna.pl asked Law and Justice MEP Marlena Maląg to comment on Eurostat’s latest figures. The former minister of family, labour and social policy said that “unfortunately, the way Donald Tusk’s coalition, the December 13 Coalition, is governing is simply embarrassing.”
“Let us remind Poles that an excessive deficit procedure has already been launched against Poland. The corrective programme prepared by the government has, of course, been devised so cleverly that no restrictions will be introduced even in 2027, although we heard yesterday that Minister Domański had said there would be no pay rises for public administration employees. This shows that this team is incapable of managing the state budget. The budget must be managed in such a way that revenue and expenditure are properly controlled, particularly by ensuring that VAT revenues flow into the state budget, making it possible to support citizens and develop the economy,”
the MEP told us.
She added: “Unfortunately, it can be said quite clearly that Poland is not heading in the right direction. The excessive deficit procedure will soon result in restrictions being imposed on social and economic programmes. Of course, this will not happen in 2027 because it is an election year, and Donald Tusk has arranged everything with the European Commission. The years that follow, however, will be a disaster.”
“Today, we must make Poles aware that Poland’s situation is extremely dangerous and that we are heading back to the days of ‘the first Tusk government’, when unemployment was rising. Unemployment is now increasing again, and soon people will lose their sense of security. Energy prices are continuing to rise, fuel prices are high, and households are facing terrifying bills. This means that the situation is, in fact, dramatic. The government is still trying to sugar-coat it and sweep these issues under the carpet, but it must be stated clearly that the situation is simply disastrous,”
she concluded.