After a short, but emotional debate, the Polish Parliament sent the bill on the structure of common courts to further work in committees. The second reading of the draft bill is taking place yesterday . The ruling Law and Justice party wants to introduce small changes to the draft, in an effort to find a compromise with the opposition parties. Our Aleksandra Zarzycka has more.
The act is to discipline judges, for example for political actions, for questioning the national judicial council, and for questioning the legality of the election of other judges. The Act provides for disciplinary penalties, including the most severe option, which is exclusion from the profession. The Law and Justice party explains that this is the answer to the anarchy that some judges want to incorporate into the judicial system. The opposition has been critical from the very beginning and says this is a repressive act, an attempt to gag. They say that the act is unconstitutional and incompatible with EU law.
”The real reason for this bill is that you know that your time of failure is approaching. The time is approaching when you will be in front of Polish courts, explaining all of the scandals that Poles have witnessed over the last four years. You’ve been trying to guarantee yourself impunity over the last four years. This Act, above, all, concerns impunity”- says Borys Budka, Chairman of The Citiziens Coalition Club.
”This law, in its regulations, applies to courts and judges, but intends to concern the right to justice. You want Poles to limit their right to justice by politicizing courts, by gagging judges, by bringing about total chaos in the administration of justice”- says Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Chairman of the Polish People’s party.
”If we agree to this kind of principle, which was created in the supreme court, that we are allowed to question the status of a judge who was previously appointed by the president of Poland, whether it be president Andrzej Duda, president Lech Kaczyński, president Bronisław Komorowski, president Lech Wałęsa or president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, then we introduce huge confusion, chaos and the threat of anarchy, which will cause complete anarchization of the Polish judiciary and we will not allow it”- says Zbigniew Ziobro, Minister of Justice.