Editorial of the “World”. A thunderclap in an already very dark sky: the storm eventually burst, Thursday, October 7, in the more and more tense relationships between Poland and the European Union. The decision of the Polish Constitutional Court not to recognize the authority of the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) on certain points of national law is a frontal attack against the functioning of the EU and marks a dangerous escalation in the conflict which has opposed Warsaw in Brussels for five years on the rule of law.
In response to a request filed by the Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, the highest Polish judicial authority held that the interpretation made by the CJEU of European treaties is, on the provisions concerning the rule of law, incompatible with The Polish Constitution. “The attempt to interference of the CJEU in the Polish judicial system calls into question the principles of the rule of law, the primacy of the Polish Constitution and the principle of safeguarding sovereignty in the process of European integration” , said a statement from the Constitutional Court.
undermine the independence of justice
Eminently political, this judgment is part of the battle led by the Nationalist Conservative Party in power since 2015, Law and Justice (ECB), to control the judiciary. Convinced that much of the Polish magistrates worked against him, the government, following the instructions of the head of the PIS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has steadily undermined the independence of justice and sanction rebel judges. Mr. Kaczynski has also set up one of his loved ones, Julia Przylebska at the head of the Constitutional Court. In response to these attacks on the independence of the judiciary, the CJEU took several decisions that Warsaw did not apply.
This new step has two challenges, one for Polish democracy, the other for the values on which the European Union is founded. The first can only be surmounted by the Polish citizens themselves. The opposition has called for a demonstration Sunday; Winner in the 2015 election and then again in 2020, the ESCO nevertheless faces the resistance of part of the civil society that does not disarm, and the former Prime Minister and former President of the European Council Donald Tusk returned recently In the political arena to take the lead of the main opposition party. However, if the polls have consistently reflected an attachment from the Polish to the EU up to 80%, the recent emergence of the question of “polexity” in the internal political debate shows that this attachment may be more at the time. economic assistance of the EU than its values.
For the EU, it’s also a moment of truth. For several years, for several years by the Hungarian and Polish nationalist leaders on the fundamental issues of the rule of law, it has established a lot, lack of institutional instruments to sanction the violations of democratic rules. It now has a true means of pressure: the 36 billion euros that Warsaw expects under the European Anti-Covid-19 stimulus plan. If Poland persists and decides to execute the decision of the Constitutional Court, then the European Commission will have to resort to this weapon. Warsaw can still avoid the test of force by renouncing the judgment. But one day will one day die the abscess and decide what to adher to the European Union means.