Duda praises ruling camp, own presidency on election anniversary
Polish President Andrzej Duda on Sunday, the anniversary of his electoral victory over then-incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski in 2015, praised the ruling camp's welfare policies and its focus on government support for strategic businesses.
Speaking to Polish public Radio One, Duda said he was proud of the 500 Plus child benefit programme that the ruling party, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS), introduced soon after taking over power from the centrist Civic Platform - Polish People's Party (PO-PSL) coalition.
The other milestone, according to Duda, was the lowering of the retirement age to the pre-PO-PSL level of 65 for men and 60 for women. The previous government raised the age to 67 for both sexes.
The president also criticised the former government for raising VAT and closing down or selling off Polish shipyards and coal mines, as well for its plans to sell the national air carrier, LOT.
He also praised the current government's VAT collection policies, saying that "billions that were being stolen before were finally brought back to the Polish budget."
The key policy over the past five years was "the focus on social matters, on the matters of the ordinary person and the family," the president said.
He said that the previous government's policy had been to take away from people, while the current ruling camp was transferring benefits to society. Duda called it "a deep difference in mentality, a deep difference in ideology."
Duda, who is running for a second term of presidency, criticised his campaign rival, PSL leader Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, for approving of the retirement age rise as labour minister in the previous government, as well as the previous government's head, Donald Tusk, calling them "people with no honour" as he recalled the promise made by Tusk in 2011 that he would not raise the retirement age.
In a Sunday Twitter post, Duda marked the 5th anniversary of his election, thanking Poles for casting their votes for him and ensuring them that "Polish matters, our matters have always been and will be of utmost importance to me."
Duda won in the second round of the 2015 presidential ballot with the support of 51.55 percent against Komorowski's 48.45 percent. The turn-out was 55.34 percent.
Duda was sworn-in on August 6, 2015.
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