This is how Poland wants to be changed by the Confederation. “These are the ideas of the madmen, these are the ideas of the kids”

– My grandmother invited my brother, took him to some village woman who had been treating her hands in this town for decades. Baba took my brother’s hand, pressed something and the hand started to work – said Sławomir Mentzen, co-chairman of the Confederation, president of New Hope. This statement of the Confederation politician comes from several years ago. The story about his brother’s hand injury led Sławomir Mentzen to such conclusions. “I’m deeply convinced that if you allowed anyone to heal people, not just someone who went to university, then many people would be healthy who are not so healthy,” Mentzen said.

In its program, the Confederation does not propose treatment by a local healer, but only new solutions for the health care system in Poland. – The name is working, “health voucher”, but we assume the marketization of the contribution, i.e. the introduction of other entities into the system, in which today the only payer is the National Health Fund – explains Michał Urbaniak from the Confederation’s Parliamentary Circle. This is to create competition in the medical care market.

The assumptions are that we will pay contributions as before, and the amount of the voucher will depend on the patient’s age. Its price is to be as much as every Polish taxpayer can afford, announces Bosak. – We have a full pool of money, which at the moment we spend on health. We’re talking about spending this pool more efficiently. So that the patient has more influence on this money – says the former presidential candidate and adds that the pool depends on tax income.

A senator of the Civic Coalition and a doctor at the same time explains that the health insurance premium is not only saving money for your own treatment, but also for all citizens. – I would very much wish that for 4,000 you could be cured, for example, of chronic cancer – commented Beata Małecka-Libera.

The Confederation also announces a revolution in taxes. It is about voluntary resignation from ZUS contributions for entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur, instead of paying the ZUS contribution, would be able to save for retirement on his own. Is such a reform not a risk for the state budget? – In Poland, there is a defined contribution pension system which is balanced in the long term in terms of public finances. Another privilege will result in an imbalance of this system – explains Sławomir Dudek, president of the Institute of Public Finance.

This is not the end – with one act, the Confederation would like to eliminate 15 different taxes. Including sugar tax, inheritance tax or emission fee. – You can’t eliminate all taxes, all levies, all fees. Because for what will we maintain these hospitals, schools, where will we get money for the army? – asks Mieczysław Kasprzak, PSL MP. The president of PiS goes much further in his criticism of the Confederation’s program. These are the ideas of madmen, these are the ideas of kids. Only children can believe in such a programme, assessed Jarosław Kaczyński on 23 July.

Confederation is not only about tax reforms. A few years ago, Sławomir Mentzen introduced the so-called “five of the confederations”. “We don’t want Jews, homosexuals, abortions, taxes and the European Union,” he said.

Although Mentzen withdrew from the words spoken four years ago, similar slogans were uttered at the June party convention. – The Euro-kolkhoz council of people’s commissars will not explain to us how we should govern ourselves in our own country. (…) And stop the Ukrainization of Poland, said Grzegorz Braun on June 24. When the Sejm in December 2022 adopted a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsoring terrorism, Grzegorz Braun was “against”.

Hence the concerns of the opposition about what foreign policy would look like if implemented by the Confederation. – It would be detrimental, for example, by promoting various anti-Ukrainian, pro-Putin standards – believes Wanda Nowicka, MP of the New Left. – These are pro-Russian politicians, they often exposed it, even some of them pro-Putin. That is, I don’t have to explain to anyone how dangerous these days are. Confederation, on the other hand, is a party that would be very happy to take Poland out of the European Union if it could, says Mariusz Witczak, a PO MP. The Confederation is ready for Polexit. – I do not exclude the possibility that in the future Poles may decide that they would like to leave the European Union and that is why we have an alternative plan prepared if such a situation were to take place – announces Michał Urbaniak. The question is what place Poland would then take on the geopolitical map of the world.