Kaczyński: Swiss-franc mortgage holders should take legal action
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
10.02.2017 09:30
Jarosław Kaczyński, the head of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has said that Swiss-france mortgage holders should take matters in their own hands and shouldn't expect the government to help.
Photo: Flickr.com/Martin Abegglen
A programme to help holders of mortgages in foreign currencies was one of the major pledges of Polish president Andrzej Duda ahead of the 2015 presidential election.
No concrete bills have yet been passed in the Polish parliament to assist the hundreds of thousands of Polish families who took out a mortgage in Swiss francs or euros until just after the banking crisis.
Asked by Polish Radio on Friday whether these families should wait for the government to intervene or start litigating with the banks, Kaczyński said that legal action is the better option.
“I think they should take matters into their own hands and begin to fight in court,” Kaczyński said, adding that this is not because people should not trust the president or the government, but because officials are in “a situation which is determined largely by economic conditions”.
He added that “the government cannot take any action that will lead to a disequilibrium in the banking system”, saying that this “would be a terrible blow to all citizens, including those who have mortgages in francs.”
Hundreds of thousands of Polish families took out mortgages denominated in foreign currencies up until around 2010. Later, the removal of a fixed exchange rate against the euro by the Swiss central bank meant that monthly installments ballooned almost overnight. (rg)