22 July, 2017
Earlier this year, the government passed laws tightening media freedom, cracking down on public protests and assemblies, and centralizing financing for non-governmental organizations, effectively severing funding to NGO's critical of the ruling political party. He says the justice system needs "radical changes" to become efficient and reliable. "We will not be intimidated by Polish and foreign defenders of the interests of the elite", the prime minister said in an address on state television.
Under consideration by the European Union is a triggering of Article 7, a sanction, never before used, which would suspend Poland's European Union voting rights. "Collectively, they would abolish any remaining judicial independence and put the judiciary under full political control of the government".
Video posted on social media showed crowds singing the Polish national anthem in unison.
Poland's Supreme Court, its former presidents, the ombudsman, the Polish associations of judges have all denounced the bill as unconstitutional. But in his visit to Warsaw on July 6, Mr. Trump had nothing to say in defense of the rule of law; instead, he lauded Poland as an ally in the defense of Western "civilization".
Senator Aleksander Bobko, of the right-wing PiS party, said that ending the term of the first Supreme Court president was an obvious violation of the constitution.
Writing to Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said the attacks on Poland by the EU were not only counter to Hungarian principles, but to European principles as well.
He said asked Duda for a meeting even before Thursday's vote and urged him to find "serious means and serious partners" in trying to solve the situation.
"The President of the Supreme Court has recently said that she will want to talk to all those who can influence the shape of this law, including with President Andrzej Duda". Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling Law & Justice party that's been criticized by the European Union for rolling back democratic norms, says he won't back down.
The vote was 55-23 with two abstentions.
In addition to several thousand protesters across Poland, human rights groups and leaders in Europe condemned the recent moves by PiS to consolidate control as anti-democratic.
Despite growing unrest and threats from the European Union, the government of Poland is on the brink of adopting a contentious law that critics say will unravel the country's democratic institutions by giving politicians influence over the courts.
The bill was passed by parliament's lower house on Thursday after tumultuous debate.
The Polish bill calls for replacing all Supreme Court judges except those elected by a judicial panel chosen by parliament. About 200 protesters also gathered in front of Duda's vacation home in Jurata, on the Baltic coast, to demand that he doesn't sign the bill.
The bill, passed Thursday by the lower house of parliament, still needs approval from Poland's upper house, the Senate and from Duda, before it takes effect.
Earlier, a special Senate commission swiftly reviewed and approved the bill, which critics say opens the door to political influence over the nation's top court.
Supreme Court chief Malgorzata Gersdorf says, on average, the court takes seven months to rule on a case but she calls that a good result, even by European standards, given that the court handles the most hard and complicated matters.
