“In essence, this is the end,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday after meeting with European leaders. “We do not intend to withdraw from this reform.”
Mr. Kaczynski, the governing party’s leader, has not hidden his intentions.
“In a democracy, the sovereign is the people, their representative in Parliament and, in the Polish case, the elected president,” he said in a 2016 speech. “If we are to have a democratic state of law, no state authority, including the Constitutional Tribunal, can disregard legislation.”
Lacking the two-thirds majority needed in Parliament to change the Constitution, the party instead took control of the tribunal. After that, the tribunal approved laws, like those restructuring the courts, that critics have called unconstitutional.
The party then gave the Minister of Justice the role of prosecutor general, which had previously been independent, and it took over the National Council of the Judiciary, which is responsible for appointing judges.
Parliament also created a new disciplinary chamber that the opposition says would be used to attack judges who displeased the party.
“Judges in this disciplinary chamber will be earning 40 percent more than the justices on the Supreme Court,” Justice Gersdorf said. “It has to be emphasized that this is political bribery.”
One of Poland’s great accomplishments after 1989 was restoring public faith in the courts, she said, but it “will require years of rebuilding” to undo the damage being done to that achievement.
She shrugged off concerns that she might have to pay a high price for her defiance.
“They are not putting people in jail, yet,” she said.
Source : Nytimes
