What kind of year was 2025 from the perspective of a leader and Lower Silesian MP of the New Left?
– It was an interesting year, and many important things happened during that time. We managed to implement many of the solutions that the New Left had promised Poles. For me, matters concerning Lower Silesia are also, of course, very important. The government’s biggest social program is certainly the widow’s pension. The program is extremely popular. At present, more than one million people are already benefiting from it. It is important to remember that we will see the program’s full impact in a year—starting in 2027, the amount of the pension or survivor’s pension received after a deceased spouse will rise from 15 to 25 percent. Today, these amounts average between PLN 300 and PLN 700 per person. Nationwide, we are talking about substantial sums: approximately PLN 4 billion in 2025, between PLN 8 billion and PLN 9 billion this year, and more than PLN 13 billion in 2027.
The most important program aimed at young people?
– Building housing for affordable rent is a key project for younger Poles. Its idea is sometimes misunderstood: it is not about building cheap apartments; these are fully-fledged homes, but about renting them affordably from the state, in this case from local governments.
As the left, we have consistently said for years that a housing loan is not a good solution for everyone. For young Poles under thirty, it is practically inaccessible today. It probably does not need explaining what consequences this has for our demographics.
The idea is simple and clear. The program works by having the state provide the financing while local governments build the homes. Approximately PLN 45 billion has been allocated to the housing program through 2030. This year, it is PLN 6.7 billion. The program is divided into three parts. The first is the construction of new social and municipal housing. The funds for this purpose are transferred primarily to municipalities that build housing.
The second element is the renovation of existing vacant properties. There are approximately two million such vacant properties nationwide. A lot, isn’t it? We have set ourselves the goal of renovating 10 percent of these vacant properties over the next three years, which would add 200,000 homes to the market—truly a substantial number. Today, around 200,000 homes of all types are built in Poland each year.
The average renovation of such a home costs around PLN 70,000—many times less than constructing a new one. Importantly, these renovations will primarily be carried out in large cities and county towns, where housing shortages are greatest. People, especially young people, want to live in places where there is work.
What does the third part of the program concern?
– One part of the program is the construction and renovation of existing student dormitories. We would like to allocate approximately PLN 4 billion for this purpose through 2030. We want young people to have access to affordable dormitories in large cities. Today, living costs—including renting an apartment on the open market during one’s studies—may be prohibitive for many.
What was achieved in the area of labor law over the past year?
– Several truly important things. Counting work performed as part of sole proprietorships or under various types of contracts for specific work or contracts of mandate toward an individual’s employment record is hugely significant for millions of people, in many different situations: retirement, various benefits, entitlements, long-service awards and so on.
For us, people of the left, work is work, which is why recognizing employment history was one of our milestones. It is astonishing that the matter was not resolved earlier by the numerous right-wing governments.
The same applies to Christmas Eve as a day off, introduced for the first time last year thanks to the New Left’s initiative.
This year, we are working to protect the interests of Polish workers by strengthening the powers of the National Labour Inspectorate and resolving the issue of fictitious B2B contracts—those under which work is in fact performed for a single company. As our readers surely know, these matters have prompted sometimes heated debate within the governing coalition.
What matters most to us today is treating workers fairly and ensuring that employers do not misuse civil-law contracts—for example, by having contracts that bear the characteristics of an employment contract carried out as contracts for specific work or contracts of mandate. In such cases, workers lose the right to health benefits, meaning sick leave, and to leave, including maternity leave. Most importantly, employment contracts also make it possible to obtain loans, including housing loans, which is an absolute foundation for building a family and increasing the birth rate. Today, workers employed under contracts of mandate or contracts for specific work have, for example, significantly lower chances of obtaining a housing loan.
The left is also the initiator of legislation concerning civil partnerships. Do you see any chance of them entering into force—which, of course, requires the signature of the President of the Republic of Poland?
– The bill concerning a person closest to you that we are currently steering is, of course, a different version of the bill that we previously called the civil partnerships bill.
Unfortunately, it probably will not be approved by the President, which is a shame, because 90 percent of the people who could benefit from this bill are heterosexual.
This is primarily about access to medical information, joint tax filing, and caring for a spouse’s children when two people live together and have children from previous relationships. It is difficult to find logical or ethical reasons to veto such a bill. I fear that this is nevertheless what will happen—for ideological and party-political reasons.