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| Poland's president to veto controversial laws amid protests | Poland's president to veto controversial laws amid protests |
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| Poland’s president says he will veto two contentious bills that are widely seen as attacks on the independence of the judicial system and are part of a planned legal overhaul by the ruling party that has sparked days of nationwide protests. | Poland’s president says he will veto two contentious bills that are widely seen as attacks on the independence of the judicial system and are part of a planned legal overhaul by the ruling party that has sparked days of nationwide protests. |
| In announcing his decision on Monday, Andrzej Duda broke openly for the first time with Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party. Duda is closely aligned with the party and has supported its agenda since taking office in 2015. | In announcing his decision on Monday, Andrzej Duda broke openly for the first time with Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party. Duda is closely aligned with the party and has supported its agenda since taking office in 2015. |
| The Polish currency, the zloty, immediately rose against the euro, as investors saw the decision as lowering the political risk in Poland. | The Polish currency, the zloty, immediately rose against the euro, as investors saw the decision as lowering the political risk in Poland. |
| The attempt by Poland's Law and Justice to take control of the judicial system should be seen as part of a wider campaign to dismantle democratic checks and balances on the government’s actions, from its takeover of state media to its capture of the country’s Constitutional Tribunal. | |
| Jarosław Kaczyński, PiS’s leader, has developed a theory known in Poland as ‘impossibilism’, the idea that no serious reform of Polish society and institutions is possible due to these checks and balances, and what he describes as the vested interests of liberal elites and foreigners intent on exploiting the country. | |
| Duda said he would veto two of three bills recently passed by lawmakers. One would have put the supreme court under the political control of the ruling party – giving the justice minister, who is also prosecutor general, power to appoint judges. | Duda said he would veto two of three bills recently passed by lawmakers. One would have put the supreme court under the political control of the ruling party – giving the justice minister, who is also prosecutor general, power to appoint judges. |
| “I have decided that I will send back to Sejm (the lower house of parliament), which means I will veto the bill on the supreme court, as well as the one about the National Council of the Judiciary,” Duda said after days of mass street protests. | “I have decided that I will send back to Sejm (the lower house of parliament), which means I will veto the bill on the supreme court, as well as the one about the National Council of the Judiciary,” Duda said after days of mass street protests. |
| Duda said a prosecutor general should not have such powers. | Duda said a prosecutor general should not have such powers. |
| Duda’s step won the praise of members of the political opposition who had been urging him to veto the bills, seen by many Poles and the European Union as attacks on the separation of powers in the young democracy. | |
| Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, a leading member of the opposition party Modern, called it a step in the right direction and an “act of courage.” She said Duda’s decision also shows the power of civic protests. | |
| Katarzyna Lubnauer, head of the parliamentary caucus of the opposition party Nowoczesna, said: “What we had was not a reform, but appropriation of the courts. I congratulate all Poles, this is a great success”. | Katarzyna Lubnauer, head of the parliamentary caucus of the opposition party Nowoczesna, said: “What we had was not a reform, but appropriation of the courts. I congratulate all Poles, this is a great success”. |
| Duda said that the country’s justice system as it works now is in need of reform, but he said that the changes that lawmakers had proposed threaten to create an oppressive system and that the protests of recent days show that the changes would divide society. | |
| He said that there is no tradition in Poland for a prosecutor general to have such large powers and he would not agree to that now. | |
| He also said that he consulted many experts before making his decision, including lawyers, sociologists, politicians and even philosophers. But he said the person who influenced him the most was Zofia Romaszewska, a leading anti-Communist dissident in the 1970s and 1980s. | |
| He said Romaszewska told him: “Mr. President, I lived in a state where the prosecutors general had an unbelievably powerful position and could practically do everything. I would not like to go back to such a state.” | |
| Duda said he was also vetoing a bill changing the functioning of the National Council of the Judiciary. The change, among other things, would have given lawmakers the power to appoint judges, politicising the courts. However, he said he was going to sign a third bill that reorganises the functioning of local courts. | |
| Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report | Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report |