After the Constitutional Court ruling: Protests planned in Poland
Protests have been announced for today in many large cities in Poland. Photo: Czarek Sokolowski / AP / dpa
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In a controversial decision, Poland’s constitutional court gave national law priority over EU law. Protests are planned in many cities.
Following a controversial ruling by the Constitutional Court in Poland, protests are planned today (6 p.m.) in Warsaw and several other major cities.
Poland’s constitutional court ruled on Thursday that certain elements of EU law violate the Polish constitution. This gave national law priority over EU law. This decision is fueling the conflict between the EU Commission and Warsaw over the reform of the Polish judicial system.
The EU Council President and Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk called for the protests. He accuses the national conservative ruling party PiS of wanting to lead the country out of the EU. Tusk is the acting chairman of Poland’s largest opposition party, the liberal-conservative Civic Platform.
Demonstrations are planned in Poznan, Gdansk, Krakow, Katowice and Bialystok, among others.
Tusk told Tok.fm radio station yesterday that he had also asked the leaders of the opposition Left and the Peasant Party (PSL), as well as former presidential candidate Szymon Holownia from the Polska 2050 movement, for support for the protests.
Holownia told RMF FM that it was “deeply concerned” by the verdict. “You have to meet with those who think that something bad has happened in Poland in the past week.”
According to a recent survey, a good 88 percent of Poles see their country’s membership in the international community as positive, only a good 9 percent rate it negatively.
Poland’s national-conservative PiS government has been restructuring the judiciary for years. Critics accuse her of putting judges under pressure. Because of the reforms, the EU Commission has already opened several infringement proceedings against Warsaw and filed suits with the European Court of Justice.