Fewer than 2 percent of residents decided how to spend 1.8 million PLN in Wilanów: participatory budget results

Wilanów has close to 45,000 residents today. 968 people took part in the vote for the 13th edition of the participatory budget, a scheme where the district sets aside a pot of public money and residents vote directly on which local projects get funded. That's fewer than 2.2 percent of the district deciding how to spend more than 1.8 million PLN of public money.

According to wilanow.pl, voting ran from 1 to 15 June, with 31 projects on the ballot, both district wide and local. 19 of them won, 12 district wide and 7 local. The most votes, 640, went to buying new library collections for the Public Library in Wilanów District. Close behind, with 531 votes, came support for teenagers' mental health, relationships and a safe space to grow up in. Further down the list of district wide winners are outdoor dance classes, bike safety workshops, neighbourhood cooking, feeding stray cats, AI education, trips for seniors, nordic walking and workshops for parents. Local projects included open air classical music concerts, yoga, sport shooting, green makeovers of roundabouts and public spaces, playground upgrades and drinking fountains. Delivery is planned for 2027.

The library and teenagers' mental health won, turnout lost

The ranking of projects says a lot about what people in Wilanów feel is missing. A library in first place is good news, but second place matters more. Mental health support for teenagers coming second in the participatory budget, with such a large lead over the rest of the field, is a signal that parents and teenagers themselves see a problem that rarely surfaces in the district's official statistics.

968 votes out of 45,000 residents isn't local democracy. It's a handful of people who happened to know that voting was even happening.

Because the real problem with the participatory budget in Wilanów isn't the projects, it's turnout. Over 1.8 million PLN is real money, genuinely changing the space around us: playgrounds, roundabouts, libraries, activities for children and seniors. And it's decided by a fraction of a percent of the district, because most residents simply don't know the vote is happening, or don't see the point given how low everyone else's turnout already is.

It's a vicious circle: low turnout undermines the legitimacy of the result, and the lack of legitimacy discourages the next round of participation. If anything in this article matters beyond the list of winners, it's this: mieszkaniawilanow.pl will remind you of voting dates in advance, not after the fact. Because the simplest way to change these numbers is just knowing when to vote.