The Polish Parliament (Sejm) approved the state budget for 2026 in first reading this Thursday (9). This budget includes historic national defense spending, equivalent to 4.81% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and a projected maximum deficit of €65 billion, equivalent to 6.5% of GDP.
The bill, approved with the votes of the ruling coalition, establishes expenses of €219 billion and estimates revenues of €154 billion, projecting a record deficit that will keep Poland under the European Union’s (EU) Excessive Deficit Procedure.
The increase in spending focuses on public investment and security, the latter of which Prime Minister Donald Tusk justified as crucial a few weeks ago when he declared that “we will not defend the Polish border with a small deficit, but with a large, modern army.”
In turn, Economy Minister Andrzej Domański, who presented the budget to Parliament this Thursday, stated that it was “designed for security and, of course, for the support of citizens” and stated that it will serve to “say goodbye to the high cost of living and stagnation”, as Polish GDP growth is expected to be 3.5% next year.
The “800+” subsidy plan, which provides a monthly subsidy of €190 for each minor child, as well as assistance for the purchase of school supplies for primary school students, will total €14.5 billion.
The approval of the budget is crucial due to the constitutional prerogatives of the president, the conservative Karol Nawrocki, an ally of the government’s opposition.
Meanwhile, the coalition led by Tusk faces a crisis after Szymon Holownia, current president of the Chamber of Deputies and leader of one of the three main parties in the ruling alliance, announced his withdrawal from national politics.
Holownia called on allied deputies to maintain electoral discipline and facilitate the approval of the budget, otherwise a crisis could precipitate and lead to the collapse of the coalition.
Although the president cannot veto the budget law, he has the power to send it to the Constitutional Court for review before its implementation, and can also dissolve Parliament and call early elections if the final version of the budget is not approved within four months.
Recently, Poland was the target of an incursion with Russian drones, something that Moscow rejects due to “lack of evidence”, according to Vladimir Putin’s regime. The action led NATO, an organization of which Poland is a member, to evaluate a joint response in cases of this type.
