FROM the mountain resort of Zakopane in the south to the Hel peninsula in the north, tens of thousands of Poles took to the streets last week in protest against proposed reforms that would have sacked all of the members of the Supreme Court and politicised the legal system. In Warsaw thousands marched night after night, holding candles and chanting “konstytucja!” (constitution). Even in the eastern city of Lublin, where the inhabitants tend to support the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government, the rallies drew hundreds of people. By one count, there were protests in over 220 cities.
They appear to have worked. On July 24th Andrzej Duda, the president and a trained lawyer, vetoed two of the three most controversial laws, saying they “would not strengthen the sense of justice”. But the threat to the rule of law in Poland is far from over. The proposed laws were only one part of a larger plan developed by PiS and its increasingly authoritarian chairman,...Continue reading
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