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WARSAW – Surrounded by enthusiastic supporters, the highest judge of the Supreme Court of Poland took a stand on the steps of the courthouse Wednesday morning, a few hours after the government purged the court. She vowed to continue fighting to protect the Constitution and the independence of the nation's courts.
"I am doing this to defend the rule of law and to testify to the truth about the line between the Constitution and the violation of the Constitution.", Justice, Malgorzata Gersdorf, told the crowd. "I hope that the legal order will return to Poland."
At midnight, the government effectively forced him to leave his job with more than two dozen other judges, but on Wednesday morning the authorities did not prevent him
The confrontation of the courthouse was followed by press conferences, fiery speeches and other street protests.
The only thing that seemed certain was that the Supreme Court itself was in disarray. recognize their dismissal, and government officials say that they will no longer be allowed to hear cases.
Judge Jozef Iwulski, 66, said: Andrzej Duda did not appoint me and he did not confide any duty to me. He made no decision in any concrete way.
In fact, it is Judge Gersdorf who recommended that Judge Iwulski fill it, which, according to the experts, would complicate the task of the ruling party. After a new press conference Wednesday afternoon, Judge Gersdorf said she would take "holidays", leaving Judge Iwulski in charge.
At the end of the day, even Polish jurists admitted total confusion Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity labor movement in the 1980s and helped overthrow the communist government, then joined the protesters
. Mr Walesa said he would seek peaceful ways to protect the constitution, but warned of dire consequences if the ruling party does not back down.
"What will happen, that's what I predicted start: There will be a civil war, there is nothing but we can do about it, "he said. "This is the path of the Civil War, I would like to avoid it."
The new rules lower the age of mandatory retirement of judges from 70 to 65, which could force up to 27 of the 72 Supreme Court justices, and also calls for the establishment of a disciplinary chamber, established, which raises fears that the […] right and justice, in power, will not. will use the new directive to intimidate judges
Law and Justice, which has been trying for years to take judicial power and resort to authoritarian means Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the party, said that Judge Gersdorf and his supporters were "doomed to fail miserably," according to the right-wing news magazine Gazeta Polska, who published an interview with him on Wednesday
.Kaczynski was also not discouraged by the threat of sanctions of the European Union (19459021), which he accused of pieti Poland's sovereignty, with the largest members of the bloc using their power to "exert brutal pressure" on the smaller ones. [19659002TheFirstPolishPrimeMinisterMateuszMorawieckiquiaprislaparoledontheEuropeanParliamentwhereuponfendulesnewleadsandaddedproposedtotheUK
"Many Europeans do not like the direction taken by the European Union". Mr. Morawiecki said. "When they feel that they are losing influence on the future of Europe and the world, then they will oppose what is happening."
"You can call this populism," he said, "but at the end of the day we will have to ask questions of the citizens and their expectations."
Monday, the European Commission, the Executive arm of the European Union, sent the case back to the highest court in Europe, but Poland has a month to answer, and any decision could come too late to stop the review.
When law and justice came to power, she campaigned against what she saw as a corrupt bureaucracy, calling on Poland to get up from her knees. 19659002] The message found widespread appeal in villages and towns, especially in eastern Poland, where many people felt abandoned as the country moved quickly to embrace Western values and capitalism
. Soviet style system was gone, and fast
While the emotional appeal of Law and Justice lies in its nationalist rhetoric and its frequent recollections of Poland's historical betrayals, it was also supported by generous social policies , including the creation of
But for Mr. Kaczynski, the transformation of the courts was always a central goal
. When his party was in power from 2005 to 2007, many of his legislative efforts were blocked by judges. He came to believe that the transition to democracy started in 1989 was flawed because many ex-communists were allowed to maintain their positions. Although the number of people in the communist era still in judicial posts has declined, the party claims that Communist thought still infects the system.
When the party returned to power in 2015, it quickly rebuilt the justice system. He has stacked the Constitutional Court, which decides whether the legislation violates the Constitution. Once this court was under the control of the party, its legislators adopted a series of measures aimed at other parts of the judicial system.
But their first effort to reshape the Supreme Court a year ago sparked widespread protests. The government has retreated.
Last winter, he proposed new measures, slightly diluted, which, according to critics, would have the same effect: to make the Supreme Court an instrument of the party.
In December, after a devastating report by the Venice Commission, which monitors the rule of law issues for the European Union, the bloc of nations invoked Article 7 of its treaty founder to take action against Poland. He became the first country in the history of the union to be threatened with losing his voting rights.
This time, however, the government would not be deterred.
Under the legislation, President Duda may grant exemptions to the agent. the age of retirement, but judges must ask him to do so. President Gersdorf and many colleagues refused, preparing the ground for stalemate Wednesday morning
The Deputy Minister of Justice of the country, Michal Wojcik, told the Polish news agency that Justice Gersdorf had been allowed to enter the court because no citizen could enter it, but he said that she would not be allowed to rule on the cases.
The recruitment process to fill the vacant seats has begun, Wojcik said.
Outside the courtyard, young and old gathered to make their voices heard. Among them was Adam Strzembosz, 87, who helped draft the constitution and was the first president of the Supreme Court after the collapse of the communist regime.
Struggling to be heard over the crowd, he said: has the right to serve a full term of six years, and a new age limit should not be used to shorten the terms.
Follow Marc Santora on Twitter: @ MarcSantoraNYT .
Anatol Magdziarz contributed to reports from Warsaw and Milan Schreuer from Brussels.
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