At a press conference on Monday in the northern city of Gdansk, Borys Budka said "these elections will really be about Poland's security".
Zbigniew Meissner/PAP

Civic Coalition (KO), the main Polish opposition grouping, will end the era of state monopolies, a senior member of the grouping has said.

The future of Poland’s state-owned assets has been shoved to the fore of the October 15 election campaign by the government including a question on the subject in a referendum due to be held on the same day as the vote.

At a press conference on Monday in the northern city of Gdansk, Borys Budka said “these elections will really be about Poland’s security”.

He added that Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, and Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister, “are able to sell or give away even the greatest family treasures, figuratively speaking, I mean the sale of Lotos refinery for their own ideology.”

Budka was referring to the sale of the Lotus Group by state-owned petrochemical firm PKN Orlen to a Saudi Arabian company.

He went on to say that the state-controlled companies can occupy dominant and uncompetitive positions in the economy and, as a consequence, drive up prices.

“We will end these state monopolies due to which you pay a lot for fuel, electricity and gas,” Budka said.

Kaczynski and his colleagues “steal from Poland,” Budka continued, adding that the price of Lotos had been underestimated and that it had been “sold for a song”.

But as an indication of just how state assets could become an election battlefield on Monday the PiS committee launched the “4xNo Tusk = Sale of Assets” campaign, which aims to promote participation in the referendum to be held on October 15.

Donald Tusk is the KO leader and a former prime minister.