Polish Patriot Act

What are the chances the President of Poland vetoes a novella that passed on September, 16 and which turns the Access to Public Information Act into a Polish version of Patriot Act? (Only the war on terror is hereby replaced by war against greedy citizens who spoil government’s privatisation negotiations.) My bet? Zero, null, zilch.

The Senate proposed to temporary restrict public access to information about any « state’s vital economic interest » since it would « undermine the protection of assets and property of the Republic of Poland or the Treasury of Poland ».

Harmless and rightful this may sound, it is the interest of State’s Treasury being protected over and against the interest of the people of Poland. As in a recent case of SPEC – Warsaw’s Heat Distribution Network – a municipal enterprise that is not only well-managed, efficient and sustainable (something you rarely say about private-owned services companies in Poland) but also owns a sort of city-level backbone Internet network. The city attempted to sell the enterprise with no actual simulations of how this would affect heating costs for Warsaw inhabitants nor without any other reason to get rid of it but a hollowing budget gap caused by immense spendings on Warsaw’s several new football stadiums. Almost by accident did the citizens learn the enterprise was put on sale. The protests were vivid and two different parties collected signatures to undertake a referendum. All those actions failed but so did – for the time being – the city’s negotiations. As it seems, elites are now striking back.

As no specific definition of « state’s vital economic interest » was given, the bill in its present shape takes from the people any possibility of interfering with whatever economic move any public agenda is preparing to undertake. Public wealth somehow becomes private property of State Treasury and the citizens have no say in the process! The amend is clearly unconstitutional and yet I do not expect neither the noble-bred and neoliberal President nor the right-wing Constitutional Tribunal to take any countermoves.

I was never a fan of transparency as main political goal since far too often I could observe in my country how helpless were people who fought unpopular decisions, public information on those feeling like a mockery. Not even right before elections the public opinion seems to matter much to the politicians and with the aforementioned amend they seem to quit with even the slightest pretences they care. It may be that the transformation’s gone bad here but if the same truth applies to other countries we are heading for a not-so-beautiful catastrophe…