HELSINKI: Poland’s chief economic advisor to Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said that the government of Poland needs to reach out to its disaffected middle class by easing the burden of Swiss-franc mortgages ahead of this year’s general election.
Kopacz’s five-month-old government risks a backlash from its core constituency while dispensing cash to contain protests by coal miners and farmers, who won’t vote for the ruling party anyway, Janusz Lewandowski, a former European Union budget commissioner, said in an interview in Warsaw on Tuesday.
The government is seeking ways to ease the pain for 563,000 households holding Swiss-franc home loans after their debt repayments jumped following the surprise Jan. 15 decision by Switzerland’s central bank to lift its currency cap. While the zloty has strengthened almost 10 percent since then, the matter hasn’t been resolved because domestic banks aren’t cooperating, according to Lewandowski.
“Given that this is about the middle class of Poland, we cannot be passive,” he said. “The government needs to send a better message to its electorate.”
Polish banks last month agreed to pass on Switzerland’s negative interest rates to borrowers, refrain from demanding additional collateral and extend loan maturities for clients having difficulty with debt repayments. Lewandowski said he’s been “very disappointed” with the implementation of those measures so far.
