Judges' retreats: ECJ forces Poland to confess its colors

The ECJ ended mandatory retirement of judges in Poland. But will the country, sensitive to questions of sovereignty, follow it? The government is covering itself.

By Jan Pallokat, ARD Studio Warsaw

Doubts about the ability of the Polish government to comply with an unfavorable court decision were sometimes raised by political leaders of the ruling PiS party, for example in August. In an interview, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin said that, if necessary, Poland should ignore these judgments.

Gowin had apparently subsequently been rejected by his own comrades and had weakened his words against "private opinion". Nevertheless, the badessment that neither the European Union nor the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) has any power over Polish judicial policy resembles a party line of the PiS.

But now, the decision of the European Court obliges the Warsaw government to confess its color.

Initial statements did not sound like a scandal

The first statements did not sound outrageous. Poland is a member of the EU and will respect European law, said spokeswoman PiS. And the president's spokesman, whose work relies notably on controversial court laws, said that although the Polish government decides, he was limiting it: "Perhaps one of those decisions could actually be an amendment to the law of the Supreme Court ".

Asked if this would restore the initial rule of law – which would force the most senior retired magistrates to return to office – the PiS spokesman said: "If the original legal status is restored, the law on The Supreme Court should be changed. "

Last push of the electoral campaign in Poland

The court's judgment breaks out in the middle of the last push of the Polish municipal election campaign. Sunday's poll, the first test of the mood since the change of power, is considered to have supraregional importance, especially since it is the prelude to a whole series of elections. : European, legislative and finally presidential elections.

Various commentators have pointed out that a debate about the country's location in the European Union just before the PiS poll could be more damaging because a vast majority of citizens are in favor of the European vote. Recently, PiS political leaders and party leader Yaroslav Kaczynski rejected speculation about a "Polexit": the PiS represents Poland's EU membership.

Gersdorf "satisfied", but worried

At the same time, the president of the forced retirement court Malgorzata Gersdorf, who can now hope to be unquestionably the supreme judge of Poland, said. Meanwhile, faced with a pale political opposition, he had become the most pithy face of the resistance that remained in the PiS government.

"I am convinced that our arguments have been taken into account, but not that the Polish government, the government of my country, has forced us to address the European Court of Justice," she commented. "This is useless and undermines the dignity of our country, it worries me."

If the reform of the judicial system, as the centerpiece of government policy, was actually to collapse, the decisive momentum would have come from outside and not from its own resources. Constellation quite dangerous, considering the sensitivity of many Poles, after centuries of heteronomy, to issues of sovereignty.