Jarosław Kaczyński made the remark in an interview with the Sieci weekly on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
‘A radical impoverishment and a big robbery of Polish people’
The leader of Poland’s governing Law and Justice (PiS) party said: “The introduction of the euro must be viewed from two perspectives: first, in terms of national dignity, because in our history, having our own currency has been one of the features of independence, and second, from the socio-economic perspective, because the adoption of the euro would mean a radical impoverishment, a big robbery of the Polish people.”
Asked why joining the single currency would have such consequences, Kaczyński replied: “The exchange rate of the currency would be set not on the basis of Polish zloty’s real purchasing power, but on the basis of proportions approximating the currency exchange rate.”
“These are two different values,” he said.
Adopting euro would 'lead to rapid economic degradation of Poland’
Kaczyński went on to say: “This will lead to rapid economic degradation of Poland as a whole and everyone individually. Our economic growth will stop, and we’ll cease catching up with the West and Germany. Such will be the effects of adopting the euro.”
Kaczyński also argued that “opinion polls show that Polish people are against such a change, that they are aware of its extremely painful consequences.”
He added that Polish opposition parties were "nonetheless determined to introduce the euro" in the country.
“It’s one of the tasks that [former Prime Minister Donald] Tusk was sent to Poland to accomplish,” Kaczyński said, adding that the euro adoption issue" is one of the reasons behind "the opposition’s "vicious, furious attacks” on Poland’s central bank (NBP) and the Constitutional Tribunal.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gospodarka.dziennik.pl