From laissez-faire lending to the marketization of litigation: the case of Swiss franc debtors in Poland

Abstract

This article presents a historical trajectory of Polish Swiss franc debtors, a group consisting of around 700,000 households commonly known as frankowicze, and provides a critical discourse analysis of social debates around their debt crisis. Initially convinced by banks that the franc was a stable currency, debtors saw their outstanding debt and monthly repayments soar after the czarny czwartek (Black Thursday) event in 2015 when the Swiss National Bank unpegged the franc from the euro. Social movements appeared and brought the issue from the private to the public sphere, but no political intervention followed. As a result, a frankowe tsunami of lawsuits is flooding the Polish judiciary with the help of specialized for-profit law firms. As most debtors belong to the middle class and are typically imagined to reside in gated communities or newer suburban developments, they have historically been unlikely candidates for sympathy in media and public discourse. The attempts of contestation, including a pivotal 2019 European Court of Justice verdict, have contributed to a reframing of debtors from failed neoliberal subjects to a group of European consumers whose rights have been infringed by banks.