State ownership is the worst form of regulation, due to the fact that it allows politicians to influence the marketplace without having to make changes to the applicable law – it is adequate to make oral call. Therefore, from the very beginning the dream was the announcement of the government coalitions that they would lead to the depoliticisation of state-controlled companies without their privatisation.
The failure of Rafał Trzaskowski in the second circular of the presidential election means that the ruling majority will inactive have limited area for manoeuvre erstwhile it comes to making changes requiring legislation. In particular, this applies to reforms of the judiciary, but commentators are besides putting in question the deregulation announced by Donald Tusk and implemented by Rafał Brzoski's team. However, there are areas where changes do not require laws. From a systemic perspective, the most crucial of these is to complete privatisation.
State ownership is the worst form of regulation, due to the fact that it allows politicians to influence the marketplace without having to make changes to the applicable law – it is adequate to make oral call. Therefore, from the very beginning the dream was the announcement of the government coalitions that they would lead to the depoliticisation of state-controlled companies without their privatisation. In addition, it is not adequate to exchange organization denominations for non-partisan professionals in state bodies of companies. Depoliticisation means depriving politicians of informal influence on business activities – and this cannot be achieved without changing the ownership structure.
Meanwhile, Simon Holownia, 1 of the biggest advocates of “depoliticisation” by the alleged professionalization of management, has late admitted that he has suggested to the Minister of State assets that this influences state banks: “Look, we have half the banks in Poland, we could not set an example and lower margins?” he quoted his conversation in the minister. A standard example of mobile regulation! But what about us, after the experts on the board, erstwhile they are expected to carry out the minister's oral decisions and do about the same thing as the PiS-owski nominat Daniel Obabiek – the author of the pre-election “miracle at distributors” before the parliamentary elections in 2023? This message by the talker of the Sejm shows perfectly that it does not substance who will sit on the boards of companies; it matters who is the final decision-maker in them. In the case of state-controlled companies, in the end, it is always a politician. And in this, not in staff changes, the politicization of the Treasury companies is manifest.
If politicians believe that bank margins in their opinion request to be regulated, let them do so transparently – they will present a bill that would be publically assessed. Calling on the presidents of state banks to simply reduce their margins overnight (without any economical justification) is part of the worst practices known from the times of the regulation of law and justice, for which it was rightly criticised by the opposition at the time.
A vast majority of respective 100 state-controlled companies can diverge without legal changes. The exception is 30 companies listed in the Act on State Property Management or regulated in the Act on Broadcasting and tv Television Polish tv and Polish Radio. Thus, the government cannot privatise the PKO BP without amending the Act. However, nothing prevents the State from giving private investors control of Pekao or Alior Bank. Orlen cannot be privatised without the amendment of the bill. However, a fuel monopolist can sale the Polska Press group. Nor does it prevent State-controlled entities from disposing of another daughter companies which are not essential from the point of view of the main activities of the parent companies.
Such privatisation would not only fit perfectly into the deregulation agenda of the current government, but would besides safeguard the state and economy in case populists return to power. It is much harder to reverse privatization than to change the bill (especially if you have the president on your side) or ownership policy. In order to reverse privatisation, we request to present a private owner with an offer that he would agree to, and this is not as easy as we have seen through 8 years of the regulation of the Law and Justice. The nationalizations then made are barely a drop in the sea of then political announcements. Private property proved to be a greater obstacle to the demolition of the state than various legal (including constitutional) fuses.
Privatisation is besides an crucial systemic reform. Private property is the foundation of a functioning marketplace economy. If we want the Polish economy to repeat its success in the following decades, we must yet “sweep the policy from the companies of the Treasury”.
