Disinfo: Current socio-economic situation of Poland is worse than in the communist times

Summary

In many areas, the III RP (The Third Republic – a term used to describe Poland after 1989) is not even close to the achievements of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL – a term used to describe Poland under communist regime, 1944-1989), starting from unemployment levels.

In no other EU country is the income inequality indicator as high as in Poland.

Disproof

No evidence given. Examples used in the text are part of a recurring narrative glorifying repressive communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. See examples here and here.

Under the communist regime, unemployment didn't officially exist, and the full employment was named as a target in the constitution of 1952. In fact, the inefficient labour market, along with overblown state administration created a separate category of unemployment - so called 'unemployment in places of employment'. It meant that even though everybody was employed officially, many people were in fact redundant - some data say that this phenomenon reached as many as 50% of employed people. Moreover, no reliable data about economy in the Polish People’s Republic is available, as the state deceived their public and each other with the statistics.

According to Eurostat and OECD data, the current unemployment rate in Poland is among the lowest in the EU.

According to the latest available data by OECD (2016), the income inequality indicator for Poland is as high as 0.28 (where 0 means complete equality and 1 - complete inequality), which puts Poland on the 9th place among the EU countries.

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pl.sputniknews.com (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 151
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 20/05/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Polish
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: USSR, Poland
  • Keywords: Socialism, economy, USSR
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Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine and discrimination against Russian speakers. The Verkhovna Rada passed, on April 25, the law "on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language". The law establishes mandatory use of the Ukrainian language in most areas of public and communal life, including the mass media, education, science, etc. However, the law does not forbid the use of Russian or other languages in private communication and religious ceremonies. Moreover, Russian and other languages can be present in book publishing, the press, including radio and television, education and the service sector. The law allows the use of other languages in the healthcare system and in law enforcement. In addition to this, the law stipulates that in accordance with the European Charter for Regional Languages and Languages of National Minorities, the government should develop a law safeguarding language-rights of the minorities within six months of the language law entering into force. For discrimination of the Ukrainian language, including in favour of Russian, administrative responsibility is given. In the humanitarian sphere - education, science, culture, sports - for violating language policy, there is a fine of 200-300 times the non-taxable minimum wage (now it is from 3400-5100 hryvnias).n The entry into force is delayed for three years. Similar disinformation cases are here and here. For background on the Ukrainian language laws, see here.

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In order to preserve its dominant positions, the West carries out both real wars around the world with millions of killed people and information wars. The West’s confrontation with the Union State of Belarus and Russia has turned in an open economic, political, and information war.

May 19, 2019
Disproof

This message is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about Western anti-Belarus and anti-Russian activities.

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May 19, 2019
Disproof

This message contains ungrounded claim about a rising German imperialism, combined with a lost sovereignty narrative frequently promoted by pro-Kremlin disinformation sources.

Imperialism is policy or ideology of extending a nation's rule over foreign nations, often by military force or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. The allegation about a present-day revival of German imperialism is ungrounded.