Poland's Supreme Court Justices Defy Government Purge
Protesters outside the Polish Supreme Court building in Warsaw, Poland.
(Screenshot / YouTube).
From Denmark to Italy, far-right governments have gained power in Europe.
The trend has also spread to Poland, where on Tuesday leaders of the Law and
Justice Party ordered a purge of the country's Supreme Court. Tens of
thousands of Poles took to the streets in protest. Now, as NPR reported
Wednesday, multiple judges are defying the purge, posing a stark challenge
to the government.
The purge was spurred by new rules that lower the mandatory retirement age
of Supreme Court justices from 70 to 65, forcing the retirements of 27 of
the 72 judges in the country's highest judicial chamber.
The government defended its decision, claiming that "the forced retirements
are aimed at fighting corruption and improving judicial efficiency," as
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reported Wednesday. Mateusz Morawiecki,
Poland's prime minister, also defended the rule to the European Parliament,
saying, "Every EU country has the right to develop its judicial system
according to its own traditions," the BBC reported.
Protesters believe the rule is part of the Polish government's attempt to
stifle judicial independence. "We are here because of the destruction of the
judiciary in Poland," Kamila Wrzesinska, one of the demonstrators, told The
New York Times.
The Law and Justice Party, the Times observes, has been laying the
groundwork for the purge since it came to power in 2015. It took control of
the country's constitutional tribunal and ministry of justice, arming itself
with new powers to choose judges, and harassing judges who dare to challenge
it. The party gained votes partly based on a nationalist message, telling
voters it was time for Poland to "get up from its knees."
The slogan, the Times says, "found widespread appeal in villages and towns,
especially in eastern Poland, where many people felt left behind as the
country moved rapidly to embrace Western values and capitalism."
What the Law and Justice Party did not prepare for, as NPR reported, was
Malgorzata Gersdorf, head of Poland's Supreme Court. She disobeyed the
order, coming to work Wednesday morning and telling assembled protesters and
reporters, "I want to show that the constitution and the violation of the
constitution are two different things."
Gersdorf has assistance from an unlikely source: the judge appointed to
replace her. As the Times reports:
"
In a reflection of the chaos, the jurist named by the government as Justice
Gersdorf's successor, Justice Jozef Iwulski, 66, said: "President Andrzej
Duda neither appointed me, nor did he entrust any duties to me. He didn't
make any decision in a concrete manner."
In fact, it was Justice Gersdorf who had recommended that Justice Iwulski
fill in for her-a move experts thought would make it harder for the party in
power to stack the court.
According to the BBC, 10 other judges followed Gersdorf's lead. The protest
also attracted multiple leaders from Poland's past, including former
President Lech Walesa, a leader in the Solidarity movement that toppled the
country's Communist government, and Adam Strzembosz, who was instrumental in
creating Poland's constitution and was the first president of the Supreme
Court after communism.
As of Thursday morning, there was no resolution in sight. In fact, The
Associated Press reported, there was more rebellion: Judges in the
constitutional tribunal wrote to their principal judge, saying she had kept
important cases from them and prevented them from doing their jobs.
