Donald Tusk, the leader of the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), said that within the first 100 days after winning the parliamentary elections his government would raise the tax-free allowance to PLN 60,000 (EUR 13,000).
Paweł Topolski/PAP

Politicians from Poland’s two opposition groupings, the Civic Coalition (KO) and the New Left, have presented their election pledges on Saturday.

Poles will go to the polls on October 15 to elect 460 members of the Sejm, lower house of the parliament, and 100 senators for a four-year term.

Donald Tusk, the leader of the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), said that within the first 100 days after winning the parliamentary elections his government would raise the tax-free allowance to PLN 60,000 (EUR 13,000).

“This means that every retiree with a pension of up to PLN 5,000 (EUR 1,082) will no longer pay income tax,” he said on Saturday presenting the party’s election programme at a convention in the southeastern city of Tarnow.

Tusk also announced that his government, within the first 100 days in power, would introduce a regulation whereby the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) rather than the entrepreneur would pay for sick leave from the first day of the employee’s illness.

“This will give the long-awaited right for a leave for small entrepreneurs or self-employed people. Anyone who runs a small business also has the right to a few weeks of rest,” he said.

Tusk also announced the restoration of full state financing of the in vitro fertilisation procedure.

“For thousands of Polish families, for thousands of Polish couples, the dream of a child, of a complete family will no longer be just a dream, it will become a reality,” he said.

Another pledge by Tusk was a 30-percent pay raise for all teachers.

Borys Budka, the head of the KO caucus, declared the establishment of aa new Ministry of Industry in Poland’s mining region of Silesia “to combine the potential of Polish entrepreneurs, industry, science and non-governmental organisations.”

The Civic Coalition also announced they would put an end to deforestation and start cleaning up Polish rivers.

Two PO MPs, Izabela Leszczyna and Adam Szłapka, also pledged abolition of capital gains tax, the introduction of anti-inflation bonds and separation of church and state.

The New Left, a coalition of the Left and the Together (Razem) parties, held their convention in western city of Poznań on Saturday.

Adrian Zandberg, co-chair of the Together party, pledged a 20-percent increase in wages for all public sector employees.

According to him, people who work in the public sector, such as teachers, need to receive “decent pay.”

“Our ironclad condition for co-governance is an immediate 20-percent increase in the public sector and a system of indexation twice a year, Zandberg declared.

The Left MP Katarzyna Kretkowska said that during the incumbent rule of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, spending on education dropped to below 2 percent of GDP. She announced that the Left would raise it to the level of at least 3 percent.

Another MP from the Left, Tadeusz Tomaszewski, pledged that right after the elections, the Left would support the citizens’ bill on remuneration in health care.

“Nurses and midwives should be in hospitals and clinics, not in labour courts, fighting for their wages,” he said.

Włodzimierz Czarzasty, the co-chairman of the New Left, said that the coalition would demand a 35-hour work week and 35-day annual paid leave for employees.

“The world is moving forward, work is not the only element of life,” he argued.