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Thousands of people took to the streets Tuesday night in cities in Poland to protest a hard-fought law that will force a group of Polish Supreme Court judges to take early retirement at midnight.
through the ruling Law and Justice party, is at the heart of a dispute over the rule of law that has broken the links between Brussels and Warsaw over the past two years and has heightened polarization of Polish society
. by the new legislation is Malgorzata Gersdorf, the head of the Supreme Court, who accused the government of seeking to "purge" the judiciary. She vowed to resist attempts to fire her, and said she would go to work as usual Wednesday morning.
Wednesday at 8:30, a large crowd gathered in front of the Warsaw Supreme Court, where Ms. Gersdorf was to arrive, waving Polish and EU flags and chanting "free courts, free courts ".
At the center of the conflict is a law promulgated last year by law and justice that raises the age of retirement from 70 to 65 years. The over-65s – nearly 40% of the Court's members – must resign today if Polish President Andrzej Duda does not agree to extend their mandate.
Law and Justice, headed by veteran ideologist Jaroslaw Kaczynski, insists that the changes are necessary to reform an inefficient system inadequately reformed since the communist era and argues that the judicial systems of other states EU members reflect elements of these reforms. Critics in Warsaw and Brussels blame Law and Justice for politically attacking the independence of the judiciary.
With a series of other changes, the revision of the Supreme Court of Poland has led Brussels to take an unprecedented step to determine whether the country, once considered the great success of the expansion of the EU in 2004, is still consistent with the core values of the block.
Ms. Gersdorf was appointed for a six-year term, ending in 2020, and is not a member. has not applied for an extension of its mandate under the new law. An aide of Mr. Duda said Tuesday that his role would be exercised by another Supreme Court Judge, Jozef Iwulski, until a replacement is elected. Mr. Iwulski is 66 years old.
In a provocative speech to students at the University of Warsaw on Tuesday, Ms. Gersdorf attacked the Supreme Court's review, calling it "purge in the form of a retrospective change in law." retirement age ". A certain era of the judiciary and the Supreme Court is coming to an end, as well as its organizational independence and competence, "she said. "My term as the first president of the Supreme Court will be brutally stopped – a mandate that is enshrined in the constitution."
Ms. Gersdorf also referred to the broader series of judicial changes promulgated by law and justice since his inauguration in 2015, including the power of politicians over the body that appoints judges and a law authorizing the Minister of Justice to dismiss [traduction] "Unfortunately, the damage is very serious", she declared. "To a large extent, the independence of the Polish Constitutional Court was destroyed. [Its] Membership is defined manually by the dictates of the expectations of the ruling party." The Minister of Justice, who is in At the same time the Attorney General now has in his hands all the instruments that really allow [him] to influence the course of cases, especially criminal ones. "
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