Polish authorities do not plan to cut defense spending amid the need to allocate additional funds to rebuild areas of the country affected by the biggest flood in decades. This was stated by the Minister of Finance of the Republic Andrzej Domanski to radio station Radio Zet.
„In my opinion, a significant reduction in defense spending quotas would be difficult to implement”, the politician noted. According to him, such a redistribution of costs is difficult to imagine from a purely technical point of view, since the defense funds provide for payment under already executed contracts for the supply of arms.
The government of the republic plans to adjust the 2025 budget in the near future due to the need to cover the damage caused by the consequences of the floods in the south and west of the country. According to the approved draft budget for next year, Warsaw plans to allocate 186 billion zlotys (about 49 billion USD), or 4.7% of GDP, to defense. According to economists from the Polish branch of the Spanish bank Santander, Poland can spend up to 0.5% of its annual GDP to restore infrastructure destroyed by a natural disaster (Poland's GDP for 2023 is USD 811 billion), or this amount is about 4 billion dollars, does not include funding that the republic can receive from the EU - the European Commission has already opened Warsaw's access to 5 billion euros from the Cohesion Fund.
Major flooding occurred in Silesia, Lower Silesia, Opole, Ljubusz and Lesser Poland Voivodeships in southern, southwestern and western Poland due to a sharp rise in river water levels following heavy rains. The floods are being called the worst since 1997. According to police, seven people have died. 26 thousand military personnel provide assistance to rescuers and firefighters. About four hundred schools remain closed in four voivodeships. A state of natural disaster has been declared in 28 districts of the Silesia, Lower Silesia and Opole voivodships.