Economist Ryszard Petru, a former advisor to Leszek Balcerowicz – the brain behind Poland’s reforms in the early 1990s – formally kicked off the ‘NowoczesnaPL’ Association on Sunday.
The new civic grouping – which translates as ‘ModernPL’ – brings together social activists, entrepreneurs and local municipal councillors to try and create a platform whereby the economy is freed from the onus of day-to-day politics.
At the group’s inaugural congress on Sunday, Petru outlined the association’s policies: to stop funding political parties from the state budget, restricting MPs to only two terms in parliament, the return of economic freedom, changes to the social security system as well as fine tuning the education system to the needs of the market.
“We will instate a cap on terms for parliamentarians, after two they can return to ‘reality’ and see what the real problems for Poles are,” Petru said on Sunday, adding that there are no debates undertaken on the most basic problems the country faces.
“We need to give the youth a chance,” he said. “We want a better country thanks to the energy and participation of its citizens,” Petru added, saying that he would like NowoczesnaPL to be a grass-roots organisation.
Petru was joined on Sunday by the Mayor of Nowa Sól, Wadim Tyszkiewicz, InPost founder and CEO Rafał Brzoska, as well as Adam Kądziela from the Youth Forum of the Lewiatan employers’ confederation. (jb)
