What about the Church Fund? Politicians on proposed changes

The Government Team for the Church Fund has existed since the beginning of the year, it was supposed to meet monthly, but only the second meeting took place on Friday. The Deputy Prime Minister who heads it Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz he says he was waiting for proposals for changes. The Left has them, but not everyone believes that the coalition will be able to reach an agreement. This concerns almost 300 million złoty, which is used from the budget to pay pension contributions for clergy.

The guests of “Kawa na Ławę” addressed this issue.

PSL-TD MP Magdalena Sroka said that “of course some of the media and probably the opposition would like this topic to stir emotions among the coalition on October 15”. – However, we are different and this dialogue is ongoing – she said.

– There was indeed a second meeting and the members of this team presented their assumptions. Let's remember that these are not only politicians, but we have a number of religious associations that are affected by this – she said.

As she added, “this proposal for a tax deduction is probably the most acceptable”. – There are no talks at the moment about the amount of the tax deduction. There are different opinions from half to one and a half percent, but this amount will be possible to determine when the direction is actually known – she noted.

Marcin Sypniewski, MEP of the Confederation, assessed that “the Church Fund itself should be liquidated, because it is some kind of relic from the times of the Polish People's Republic”. – I do not like the idea of ​​a tax deduction. I believe that churches and social organizations should finance themselves, from the bottom up, and the faithful should pay – he stated.

– And if we are talking about some deductions here, it would be much better to reduce this tax for everyone, also for those who do not want to pay for any Church. Then taxes would be lower and the faithful would have more money – he added.

MEP of the Civic Coalition Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz pointed out that “the Church has assets”. – It is indeed questionable whether all citizens should contribute to an institution that functions well in financial terms – she wondered.

– In my opinion, the solution regarding the tax deduction, especially if it were voluntary, is a good solution. Firstly, it would strengthen the separation of the state from the Church, and secondly, it would increase the control of the faithful over the financing of religious associations and the Church – she said.

– We have a number of pathologies here, some of them have been stopped, for example the issue of financing the empire of the director's father [Tadeusza Rydzyka – red.]but there are still a lot of them, hence an audit will also be carried out during the work on the Church Fund – she added.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrzej Szejna from the Left said that the position of his club was clear. – The Church Fund should be liquidated – he emphasized.

– 90-odd percent of the Church Fund's resources are allocated to paying social insurance contributions for representatives of religious associations, of which there are about 185 registered in Poland today, including those that lost nothing in the 1950s. The state took nothing from them – he emphasized.

– It's simply an anachronistic system. Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk and Minister Sebastian Gajewski are leading and strongly pushing the project, in which there are ready solutions. There must be consent to them from all coalition partners – he added.

According to Marcin Przydacz, a member of the Law and Justice party, “it is clear that the Civic Coalition brought up this topic during the election campaign despite the failure of previous work.” – Until 2015, the first government Donald Tusk worked on it, but was unable to develop any formula for change in this regard – he stressed.

At the same time, he stressed that “this is not an artificial topic”. – There are such voters, most often they define themselves as rather left-wing. This also shows that the Civic Coalition, despite being a Christian democracy, I say that in quotation marks, has moved and is moving very much to the left – he added.

– You asked who is the brakeman. It is clear that it is the Third Way, which does not want to agree to this. Once again we see internal friction (in the coalition – ed.) – he assessed, addressing the host.

Łukasz Rzepecki, advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland, stated that Andrzej Duda “he will speak out when the bill reaches his desk”. – And judging from the statements, it is clear that it will not be soon, if at all, because the provisions of this bill are like a yeti: everyone is talking about it, but no one has seen it – he stated.

– We believe that this idea will be like abortion. There was an idea, very politically perfidious, that is, to direct full responsibility to the president. And what? And it didn't work, it was rejected in the Sejm and I think it will be similar here – he assessed.

– I don't know if there will be a final vote at all, maybe yes, closer to the elections, but whether it will be the presidential elections, it's hard to say – he added.