PiS pledges Poland exit from EU carbon market, tax breaks for working pensioners and a higher top-rate threshold
Opposition party Law and Justice opened a seven-city policy rollout with a proposal to leave the Emissions Trading System, exempt senior pay from income tax, and raise the 32% tax bracket to 180,000 zł.
The Kalisz event
Przemysław Czarnek, the party’s candidate for prime minister, and PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński met supporters in Kalisz on Sunday for the first of seven planned conventions. The gathering was billed not as an election campaign launch but, in Kaczyński’s words, as “a great effort to win the elections, so that a good, truly Polish government can be formed.” Czarnek stated that the 21 measures will be delivered within the first 100 days of a PiS government after the 2027 parliamentary elections.
We will have six more such episodes. This is one of seven, because the plan—already called the Czarnek Plan by my friends—contains exactly 21 concrete program points that will be implemented in the first 100 days of a new government of the Republic of Poland, a government for Poles, a government of hope, a government of development.
Exit from the ETS
Point one is a unilateral exit from the EU Emissions Trading System. Czarnek called ETS “the biggest fraud ever imposed on Poles” and argued that Poland’s energy-intensive industries cannot compete with China or the United States, where electricity is three to six times cheaper. He insisted that leaving the system does not mean leaving the European Union. A ready bill would be the first decision of a new PiS cabinet, Czarnek said.
We are leaving the ETS! This is the greatest fraud the Polish people have been subjected to. We are simply leaving the ETS—for people, for Poles, for Europeans. Stop the ideological orders from Brussels.
The party frames its proposal as compatible with an environmental policy built on stable renewables (hydro, biogas, geothermal), nuclear investment, and domestic coal. Czarnek criticised the delay of the Konin-Pątnów nuclear project as an example of inaction.
Silver labour
A measure labelled “srebrna praca” (silver labour) would exempt the first 2,500 zł net of a pensioner’s monthly pay from personal income tax and from social-security contributions. PiS argues this will encourage employers to hire older workers and reduce reliance on economic migration. The party also wants to raise the earnings limit for those drawing an early pension by 2,500 zł.
Higher second tax bracket
The third proposal lifts the threshold at which the 32% PIT rate kicks in from 120,000 zł to 180,000 zł (360,000 zł for joint filers). Czarnek pitched it as a follow-through on President Karol Nawrocki’s 21-point presidential programme, noting that in 2025 more than 2.4 million Poles already fell into the higher bracket.
