Poland’s leading opposition party said it will look to put the country’s central bank chief, Adam Glapiński, on trial for failing to successfully tame inflation if it wins next month’s election.
The party, Civic Platform, vowed to hold Glapiński accountable for “destroying the independence” of the National Bank of Poland and “failing to implement the basic task” of fighting high prices, it said in publishing a package of pledges for its prospective first 100 days in office on Saturday.
Glapiński joins a cast of Polish senior officials — including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, President Andrzej Duda and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro — whom Civic Platform has pledged to hold to account at state tribunals if the party wins the October 15 election.
The threat against Glapiński comes after the central bank eased its monetary policy for the first time in three years on Wednesday, with a 0.75 percentage point cut in interest rates.
The rate reduction was far more aggressive than analysts had predicted and fueled suspicions the bank was trying to lend support to the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) ahead of amid tight pre-election polls. The decision shocked markets after Glapiński had previously indicated the bank would not cut interest rates until inflation — which peaked at 18 percent last year in Poland — was back in single digits. A 10.1 percent reading in August left inflation just above the planned threshold but not so far as to rule out a rate cut, analysts said.
Glapiński is a former PiS senator whose reappointment last year as central bank chief was strongly opposed by other parties. Former Prime Minister and European Council President Donald Tusk, who is heading the opposition to PiS in the current campaign, told reporters on Thursday there is “no doubt” that the central banker “took a decision that would make loan-holders happy and the scale is surprising ahead of the election.”
Civic Platform trails PiS in recent polls. It is unlikely either party will get an absolute majority in parliament.
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