Polish Opposition Threatens to Investigate Central Bank Chief Over Inflation
Poland's leading opposition party has announced that it will seek to take the head of the country's central bank, Adam Glapinski, to court for his inability to curb inflation if they win the elections next month.
This was reported by Politico.
The Civic Platform party pledged to hold Glapinski accountable for "destroying the independence" of the National Bank of Poland and the "inability to fulfill the basic task" of combating high prices by publishing a package of commitments for its first 100 days in office on Saturday.
Glapinski joins a group of high-ranking Polish officials, including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, President Andrzej Duda, and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, whom Civic Platform has promised to hold accountable in state tribunals if the party wins the elections on October 15.
The threat against Glapinski arose after the central bank, for the first time in three years, softened its monetary policy on Wednesday, lowering interest rates by 0.75 percentage points.
The rate cut was much more aggressive than analysts had predicted and raised suspicions that the bank was trying to support the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) ahead of tense pre-election polls.
The decision surprised the markets after Glapinski had previously stated that the bank would not lower interest rates until inflation, which reached a peak of 18 percent in Poland last year, returned to single digits. According to analysts, the 10.1 percent inflation rate in August left inflation slightly above the planned threshold but not enough to rule out a rate cut.
Glapinski, a former PiS senator whose reappointment as central bank chief last year faced strong opposition from other parties, has been criticized for his actions. Donald Tusk, former Prime Minister and President of the European Council, who leads the opposition to PiS in the current campaign, told reporters on Thursday that there was "no doubt" that the central banker had made a decision "that will make lenders happy, and the scale is surprising just ahead of the elections."
Civic Platform is trailing behind PiS in the latest polls. However, it is unlikely that any party will secure an absolute majority in parliament.