The share of Poland's exports to Germany accounts for 36.3 percent of their total value, while imports from Germany account for 26.4 percent of Polish imports. In 1998, the value of Polish-German trade amounted to 30.1 percent of the total Polish foreign trade. Coupled with a period of political infighting, the economic downturn has raised social tensions. Budgets are tight and the government of Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek remains committed to reducing the budget deficit to zero by the year 2002, the year in which Poland hopes to enter the European Union. The SLD skillfully exploits these grievances, and it hopes to rise to power in the next election.
Society seems to be poised for a series of strikes and demonstrations.
In January 1999, Poland's doctors and nurses threatened a nationwide strike over proposed reforms, demanding more state funding for hospital and outpatient care. Pig farmers, who have seen their prices cut in half partly because of the Russian crisis, have staged a series of protest road blocks. It is not the size of Polish farms that is at stake, but rather an inability of Poland's ruling class to facilitate the farmers' access to markets. The Polish countryside is desperately short of capital, and it expects the government to take the initiative in building roads and providing affordable transportation for farm products. On 28 January 1999, Solidarity called a strike alert at the Sendzimir Steelworks, demanding guarantees of government orders during the period in which the plant was to be restructured.