The speech by Leszek Balcerowicz at the 10th anniversary of the Civil Development Forum

Until the beginning of 1989, I did not think that Poland would be free in my lifetime. Therefore, I could not even dream that I would be involved in her transformation. In the 80s I saw no light at the end of the tunnel.

But I had a hobby. I was interested in reforms in multiple countries and continued that study, undertaken already in the 1970s with various, young at that time, people on diverse projects for reforming political and economic systems. It was a kind of homework that seemed to be a very interesting but completely useless hobby.

Conclusion: do have a useless hobby. It may come in handy. You have to be prepared both for bad surprises - then you have to practice bodybuilding - and for good ones, so that you do not have to spend time learning, but are ready to advance quickly.

And this hobby of mine indeed came in handy when suddenly Poland regained its independence. The government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki appeared, and it turned out that nobody had done their homework. No one had ever wondered what to do when freedom comes forth. However, one of the Prime Minister's advisors remembered that there was once, in the days of the first "Solidarity," a team of Balcerowicz, which had such a hobby.

And by chance, the day before my departure to the UK for a series of lectures, I got a call saying that the prime minister wanted to see me.  Mazowiecki told me that he wanted me to be his Ludwig Erhard. As I had studied Erhard's reforms, I knew that the economic situation in Poland was more difficult than that in Germany in his time. I refused. Mazowiecki asked me to think about it. I thought. I talked to my wife. She was also against it. And I do not know why, but I agreed.

Probably I agreed first of all because there was the team. Nothing is accomplished in solitude - unless you practice poetry. But in teamwork, both the team and the leader count. The best teams are those with higher motivation.

I knew that only very radical and extensive reforms had a chance of success. That slow, gradual changes are doomed to failure. Many people are afraid of risk and choose the worst solution. Fleeing from risk, they fall into a trap. There are moments when you have to hurry and choose between a hopeless and a very risky option. Risky is always better than hopeless.

The first heroic two years did not require a great deal of public communication because it was the speed that counted. The idea was to make the fullest use of the period of the extraordinary policy, which could not last forever. It was a time when the forces of the previous system were still discredited, and the new forces - Solidarity - were not yet divided. Besides, the climate was supportive. The belief that the bad system was ending was overwhelming, and the problems that people felt were blamed on that old system, and not on its rejection. Later, it started to change a little under the influence of false, hateful messages.

For the first two years, I worked with the team primarily on carrying out reforms. I did not accept the thesis that at first society must be driven to school and taught what capitalism is, and only later can we introduce reforms. Many said so. The vast majority of economists in Poland were opposed to the reforms because they were infected with socialism or statism.

In 1991 I left politics, convinced that I would never return. I am a politician who wants to do his job, not enjoy his position. However, it turned out that some tasks remained, and not all was done, so I returned to politics as the chairman of the most reformist party of the time - the Freedom Union (Unia Wolności, UW). I came back to speed up the reforms. And that was to a large degree achieved in the years 1997-2000 in a very exotic coalition. UW was a free-market party, and the coalition comprised twenty small parties, considered right-wing, and the Solidarity trade union, which was then reformist.

What did we do? The most important reform was the acceleration of privatization. Because the more state ownership - the more wastage, the more politics in the economy, the greater the ability to intimidate people: "I can fire you." And to bribe people: "I'll give you a job."

One must fight the myth of state property as common property. It is not common property; it is a loot of politicians. The worse the politicians are, the more they loot.  We cannot let them do that.

We also introduced a fundamental pension reform, unfortunately largely reversed later.  There was the health care reform.  Restructuring of the mining industry. Strengthening of local governments.

Of course, it was still the speed that counted.  In duels, also those within a coalition, it always pays to be faster, to get ahead of others and not to be on the defensive. Better – on the counteroffensive or offensive.

However, at this stage it was time to learn the skill of communication because the period of an extraordinary policy was long over. It was necessary to influence public opinion, oppose various lies and hateful messages. For this we needed another team: a communication team - and I had great young people for that.

In this area, the speed was also important. When we found out that someone wanted to attack us, we had to react quickly. For example, when we were about to be accused of not putting enough money in healthcare (the money is always lacking there), we prepared a black book on wastage in the healthcare - and they had to explain themselves.  They could not attack us.

I had a great master who familiarized me with television so that it would not scare me - Kazimierz Kutz. To a large extent, it was thanks to him that I won the election in the most proletarian region of Poland, Silesia. And without playing up to the miners!

On this second stage, I came to understand even better than before how important is truthful and at the same time very attractive public communication. At that time, despite a lot of tasks and reforms, I wrote short essays every two weeks, which were an antidote to populism.

I knew that when my public service ended - and it lasted longer than I thought - I would set up a strong, efficient, and honest think tank. And I did it at the end of my term at the NBP. We were looking for a name for it - and we hit on a very good one:  Civic Development Forum. It became a very important part of my life, not my personal but rather my public life.

Democracy needs to be guarded like the pupil of the eye. And the rule of law must also be protected. In what direction the country is going, what politicians are, what they are going to do - it all depends primarily on the distribution of opinions and attitudes in the society. And there are never too many protectors of freedom. There are never too many guardians of the state of law. Usually there are not enough of them.  In Poland, we need more guardians of freedom, not acting individually but in concert, in an organization. Powered by a sense of mission. Not hierarchical, but coordinated.

That is why year after year we organize summer schools and are on the lookout for capable young people. According to their beliefs and ours, we try to train them, so that they come to FOR and learn to be champions of freedom and the rule of law.

To end with, I would like to thank all those who are with us. We are connected not only by personal, mutual sympathy but also by a powerful bond resulting from the sense of an important mission. After all, in public life there are no matters more essential than wide-ranging freedom and the rule of law. And we have to defend them.

The text of the speech delivered on 29 September in Przypki near Warsaw.