The Polish coexistence between the pro-European government of Donald Tusk and the ultranationalist President Andrzej Duda has led to this an institutional crisis that threatens to paralyze the country. Duda, of the ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, has thrown all his weight behind the reformist agenda with which Tusk ran in last October's elections.
Before Christmas, in a first impulse, The Polish president blocked the budget of public radio and television in protest against the government's decision to dismiss the PiS-appointed leadership, accused of manipulating the public body's information.
But the biggest problem facing the government, a diverse coalition of conservatives, liberals and social democrats, is its plan after eight years of attempts to restore the independence of the judiciary for the control of judges by Jaroslaw Kaczynski's party. This Monday, Duda once again challenged Tusk by refusing to accept the dismissal of prosecutor Dariusz Barski, who remains in office despite having lost the government's trust.
Barski, who was appointed by former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, was fired on Friday following submissions from the Justice Ministry a law to reform the electoral mechanism of Polish judgesa first step towards restoring the independence of the judiciary in the face of the European Commission's criticism of Poland.
The President of the Republic, who met with Tusk yesterday, accuses the government of not respecting the lawwhich requires him to be consulted on the dismissal or appointment of the national prosecutor, who is second in the public prosecutor's office after the attorney general.
An example of this court case in which Poland reached an agreement is: He was jailed last week over a 2007 case by former PiS MPs, including a former minister. The previous government's Interior Minister, Mariusz Kaminski, and his close aide, Maciej Wasik, were held in the presidential palace where they had sought refuge at the invitation of Duda, who described them as the first political prisoners in Poland since the fall of communism in 1989 .
“It is a situation unknown in any other democratic country when the president hides people convicted by courts and does not recognize the verdict of the courts,” he says. Stanislaw Mocek, director of the private university Collegium Civitas in Warsaw.
In 2015, both politicians were sentenced to prison for preparing eight years earlier, when they headed the anti-corruption office, a false file against high-ranking political officials. They were then pardoned by Duda even before the court's decision, which was later questioned by the Supreme Court, took effect.
The Constitutional Court, controlled by the PiS, rejected the verdict of the Supreme Court and authorized the head of state to confirm that his clemency remains valid for life. This final court also initiated a new “grid trial” that is different and longer than the previous one.
“The president is adding more fuel to the fire while claiming he wants to reach a compromise. The only possible compromise is the rule of law», emphasizes Mocek. For his part, Duda does not hesitate to publicly denounce “the terror of the so-called rule of law,” at a time when Tusk considers it a “main principle” that he will follow.
that is probably the confrontation between the pro-European government and the populist nationalist oppositionsupported by the Polish president, will last until the end of Duda's second term in 2025.