Polish president sets up own council to go ahead with PiS’ flagship mega-airport plan

4 months ago 23

Polish President Andrzej Duda has set up his own council to push ahead with plans to build a new ‘mega airport’ in Poland, a flagship project of the former ruling PiS party to which Duda is said to still be loyal, following his falling out with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government over the project.

The Central Communication Port (CPK) is a mega-project to build a new airport from the ground up, some 40 kilometres south-west of Warsaw, as well as a new nationwide high-speed rail and motorway network linking the CPK to much of the rest of the country.

The reason for building the CPK was that Warsaw Chopin Airport, currently the largest airport in Poland, would soon be unable to cope with the increase in air traffic caused by the growth in the number of routes and airlines.

However, Tusk’s current government has been sceptical about the initiative proposed by the previous PiS government, which lost power to Tusk in last October’s elections – a stance that has had PiS criticising current leaders, saying they do not care about the country’s interests and sovereignty.

Last week, Tusk announced that his government would go ahead with the CPK project, but in a slightly different form from the one proposed by PiS. The aim is to make the plan more financially efficient.

“The Central Waste of Money (abbreviated as CPK in Polish) has definitely ended on 15 October,” he wrote on X, referring to the day of last year’s parliamentary elections that saw his coalition replace PiS.

He also pointed out that there has been no significant development in the implementation of the project since the day it was first presented, yet “some people have already earned a lot from it”.

Tusk said the total cost of the CPK is estimated at 2.7 billion zlotys (€626.5 million).

‘It would be a high treason’

Duda, a former PiS member accused of remaining loyal to his old party, is a staunch supporter of the CPK.

“It would be an airport that takes us to a different level of transport,” he said on Monday, adding that it would facilitate long-haul flights as well as deliveries of military equipment.

“Yes, there is an airport in Berlin, but let our western neighbours benefit from it. We want to have our own (big) airport, too,” the president said ironically.

He admitted that the current government’s policies left him “full of doubts” about whether the CPK and other strategic investments for the country would be realised.

“Let no one in Poland dare to block the investments that we should implement (…) for the good of the country and its citizens in order to ensure higher profits for someone else because this is high treason,” he warned.

President’s council

Lacking full confidence in Tusk’s government, Duda announced on Monday the creation of the Council for Strategic Development Projects to ensure the implementation of key projects.

The council will include former employees of state-owned companies and experts and will be chaired by Marek Dietl, the president’s adviser on social affairs.

The new body will analyse, issue opinions, and recommend strategic projects it considers key to the country’s development.

Duda thanked its members for “agreeing to (…) fight for the implementation of the most important investments” in areas such as nuclear energy, maritime infrastructure, cyber security, telecommunications and the CPK.

“We need investments which would allow us to reach a higher level. There is no reason for us not to implement the biggest investments, like those in the rich countries,” he added.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)