Petr Huml

European media just noticed what the numbers have been screaming for years. Poland keeps posting 3–4% growth while France slashes its 2026 forecast to 0.4–0.5% and Germany crawls along at under 1%, but only thanks due to exploding government spending while the real economy contracts. Poland became a trillion-dollar economy, unemployment sits among the lowest in the EU, industry is expanding, wages and investment are rising fast, and the stock market is hitting records. Meanwhile the old “core” of Western Europe still firmly believes in its moral superiority, lectures everyone else about how things should work, then delivers stagnation, higher debt, and weaker industrial output than in 2020, during the pandemic slump. The Economist called Poland an “ignored stock-market superstar.” The Times called it Europe’s economic miracle. German outlets now write about the “new success story of Eastern Europe.” This is what happens when a country actually builds, works, and values entrepreneurialism instead of punishing it with higher taxes and more regulations. The uncomfortable part for Paris, Berlin, and Brussels: the country they used to look down on is now the example of a place that not only still functions, but keeps running ahead. Poles understand that one needs to work hard for a better life. People in Western Europe follow left “tax the rich” narratives instead and wonder why their quality of life deteriorates. Will Western Europe get back to values that drive prosperity, or is the left’s damage already too deep?