DISINFO: Current socio-economic situation of Poland is worse than in the communist times
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: pl.sputniknews.com (archived)*
  • Date of publication: May 20, 2019
  • Outlet language(s): Polish
  • Reported in: Issue 151
  • Countries / regions discussed: USSR, Poland
Tags:
Socialism economy USSR

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.

RESPONSE

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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Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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