"As our programme is for eight years, in eight years the list of countries that have been caught up with or overtaken will be really long and perhaps there will be countries such as England or even France," Kaczyński said at a meeting with PiS supporters.
Tomasz Waszczuk/PAP

Poland could well overtake England and France in the next eight years, if Law and Justice (PiS), the current governing party, retains power, the party’s president has said.

Jarosław Kaczyński, who is also deputy prime minister, made the claim while visiting Elbląg in northern Poland as part of his nationwide parliamentary election campaign tour ahead of the October 15 vote.

“As our programme is for eight years, in eight years the list of countries that have been caught up with or overtaken will be really long and perhaps there will be countries such as England or even France,” he said at a meeting with PiS supporters.

“And then a few more steps and there is Germany, and then there are the richest countries, such as Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, and finally Denmark, the richest country in Europe that is not a tax haven,” Kaczyński added.

The government, he continued, “ensures a safe future for Poles” when it comes to defence, economics and internal order.

“We are simply giving Poles a chance at what seemed like a fairy tale,” he added.

Kaczynski admitted that some 30 years “we had” candidates from Elblag “saying that we would be on an equal footing with Western countries was an extremely vague prospect.” 

But now, he said, we are “very close to Western countries… we have already surpassed some of them … and we will surpass more soon.”