Seizing control of Poland’s court system, 48-year-old President Adrzej Duda sent a loud message to Brussels-based European Union [EU] that Poland will be the master of its own destiny, certainly administering its courts and justice system. Since joining the EU May 1, 2004, Poland has spent much of its economic development dealing with its own internal affairs. Poland as a nation didn’t exist for some two hundred years succumbing to invasions and occupations by its neighbors, especially Germany and Russia. Poland’s capital, Warsaw, was in total ruins after serving as the main battlefield for the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Rising from the ashes of WW II, Poland was finally given its borders back, even though the Soviet Union continued to dominate Polish politics until 1980, despite Poland’s independence from Russia and Germany in the years following WW II.
Duda’s commitment to sign Poland’s new legislation governing the court system was seen as an affront to the EU. Duda’s government now has the authority to fire judges, especially if their rulings disagree with Duda’s ruling party. Near completing of his first five-year-term, Duda rejects the EU’s continued pressure on Poland to help clean up the immigrant mess caused by years of Mideast wars backed by the EU, United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. EU kingpins, 65-year-old German Chancellor Angela Merkel and 42-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron, backed the Saudi-funded proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Since March 15, 2011, the EU, U.S. and Turkey funneled billions of dollars into regime change in Damascus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin joined to fight to save al-Assad Oct. 1, 2015, the war gradually turned in al-Assad’s favor.
Eight years of bloody civil war created the worst refugee crisis since WW II, where some 20 million Syrians fled Syria, another 500,000 killed, clamoring to get into the EU. Merkel admitted some 1 million Syrian and other Mideast refugees into Germany in 2016-2017, asking the EU to spread the burden of the refugee crisis to other EU states. Recognizing the immigrant flows to the EU, Hungary and Czech Republic put up barbed wire around their borders, telling Brussels “NO” when it came to taking more immigrants. EU pressure to take more Mideast immigrants got so bad in 2016 it prompted the British government to vote on Brexit [leaving the EU] June 21, 2016. When the initiative passed 52% to 48%, the damage to the EU was in full display, losing the U.K.’s $2.62 trillion Gross Domestic Product to the EU. On Jan. 31, Britain’s long-awaited exit from the EU will be complete.
EU legal experts worry that Poland’s independent decision to reform its justice system could spread like a contagion to other EU countries. When the refugee crisis threatened the EU, Brussels backed off refugee quotas to non-complying EU states. EU justice system has provided a uniform system of laws to govern the remaining 28 EU countries, including Poland. Calling Duda’s legal reforms “a gross violation of the law, and its so-called resolution has no legal effects,” said Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. Poland’s court system, including its Supreme Court, cancelled hearings due the presiding judge was appointed under controversy. Poland’s Supreme Court rejects Duda’s Judiciary Council because it violates the Supreme Court’s judicial independence. Poland’s parliament passed a law allowing politicians to fire judges who rule against the government subscribing to EU law.
Calling the new parliamentary legislation a “muzzle law,” Polish constitutional expert Bogna Baczynska said the EU laws give Polish legal standards needed to administer the kind of consistency needed for justice. “EU will not keep sponsoring a member that is destroying its foundations, its roots,” Baczynska said. “Poland is no longer a democratic regime,” ad Laurent Pech, professor of European Law at London’s Middlesex University. Pech called Duda’s actions a “process of de facto exit from the EU legal order has begun.“ Despite the push back from the EU, Duda and Poland’s parliament seeks Polish, not EU, independence. Poland’s Solidarity Movement lead to Poland’s first Democratic President Lech Walesa Dec. 22, 1980. Walesa fought Poland’s Soviet-friendly military leader Wojciech Jaurzelski.in the streets of Gdansk. Poland won its battle with Communism, only to find 40 years later it’s seeking independence from the well-intentioned EU.
Duda faces repercussions from asserting Poland’s legal independence from the EU. “No one will invest in a country where essentially the rulings of the Court of Justice regarding the judicial branch are simply openly ignored,” said Pech. “We will not be told, in foreign languages, what kind of system we should have in Poland and how Poland’s affairs should be taken care of,” Duda said, rejecting calls for Poland to conform with the EU. Whether Duda’s defiance of EU legal standards results in a departure from the EU is anyone’s guess. One thing’s for sure, Poland’s long battle for its borders and independence cannot be superseded by Brussels, simply because it appointed itself the EU’s commanding legal authority. “We live in a constantly fueled conflict,” said retired chief Justice of Poland’s Constitutional Court,” said Adrzej Rzeplinski. “The next stage will be to take Poland out of the EU.”
