Since Wednesday, there has been a lot of talk about the conflict at the National Bank of Poland. Then, member of the management board of the Monetary Policy Council, Paweł Mucha, published a statement and two letters in which he accused the head of the NBP, Adam Glapiński, of failing to perform his duties. During his speech on Thursday, the president of the central bank stated that there was no conflict. Meanwhile, in “Fakty po Faktach”, economist Ignacy Morawski stated that it opens a potential path to bringing Adam Glapiński before the State Tribunal.
On Wednesday, Paweł Mucha published a statement on the X platform (formerly Twitter), as well as two letters that he had previously addressed to the members of the Monetary Policy Council: “Letter regarding failure to perform obligations regarding the cooperation of NBP bodies” dated November 2, 2023 and “Letter regarding failure to perform duties by the President of NBP, Adam Glapiński” of November 6, 2023.
He accuses, among other things, that some members of the NBP management board are not provided with the minutes of the Monetary Policy Council meetings, as well as the inability to meet with the president, Adam Glapiński.
Read more: War at the top at the NBP. “It’s about money, it’s about salaries, and that’s the argument.”
During Thursday’s conference, President Adam Glapiński said that there is no dispute at the NBP, and “the dispute is only about prizes and bonuses, that is the whole truth. The rest is just fog and directions. It is trivial, but there is no division or conflict.”
“A mess in the management”
Economists Marek Zuber from the WSB Academy and Ignacy Morawski from “Puls Biznesu” talked about the situation at the National Bank of Poland in Thursday’s edition of “Fakty po Faktach”. In their opinion, the problem is serious. – This is another stone that will devastate the perception of the NBP. Because, unfortunately, the president has given a reason for this in recent months. His conferences are a joke, Adam Glapiński was untruthful and offended people, Zuber pointed out.
The economist recalled that “at least twice, the environment, the financial markets, i.e. the entire economy, were surprised very much, and I think more times, maybe in less important things.”
– First, by increasing rates several months ago, when there were signals that there would be no such increase, and, of course, now by lowering them by 75 points, I mean the decision from September. Such a mess in the management, such quarrels in the management, is mudslinging, because in fact this is what it looks like – it is another factor that reduces the credibility of the central bank. A very important institution in the market economy, said Zuber.
Opening the way to the State Tribunal
In the opinion of Ignacy Morawski, this conflict “may open a potential path to bringing Adam Glapiński before the State Tribunal.” – The statements of politicians quoted in the media today show that this may happen – noted Morawski and recalled that the Civic Coalition promised in its program that it would try to bring the president of the NBP before the State Tribunal.
– The problem is, maybe not even a problem, fortunately, it is the case that the president of the central bank cannot be held accountable for high inflation. In order to hold him accountable and dismiss him, the constitution and the law would have to be violated. And what does Paweł Mucha accuse the president of the NBP? It is precisely the violation of the act – said the economist, adding that this case, Mucha versus NBP, “puts us on the horizon with a potentially very large conflict.”
– The dismissal of the central bank president is an event that generally does not happen in developed countries. We have a really large conflict ahead of us, concluded Morawski.
Main photo source: Radek Pietruszka/PAP