Uproar over moves toward a dictatorship in Poland

MORE than 50,000 people have taken to the streets of Warsaw, Poland to demonstrate against the government demanding they respect the constitution and democracy. Currently there is a conflict between the Polish government and the Constitutional Court in Poland. 

The rally started near the Constitutional Court building and marched for three kilometres to the presidential palace in the old town. 

The leader of the Liberal Opposition party, Ryszard Petru said: “Years ago, Poles protested to change the political system” 

“Now we’re protesting to make sure they don’t suddenly change it,” he added.

In 2015 the political status quo was turned upside down when the ruling Law and Justice Party came into power. They created new legislation limiting the powers of the constitutional court and imposing controls on the media. 

The Government recently made a decision to increase the number of judges from 9 to 15, which means it will be harder to secure rulings and the Constitutional court have retaliated with a statement saying that this is illegal. 

And since this statement made by the court, the government then refused to publish the constitutional court’s decision claiming that the court’s ruling was illegal itself.

Government spokesman Rafal Bochenek said: “We uphold the position that Poland’s government cannot publish the statement of some of the constitutional court judges, which is not based on law.” 

The EU has also been critical over the Polish Government, with calls from Gunther Oettinger, European commissioner and German politician, to impose supervision over Poland. Poland’s Justice Minister compared this news to the Nazi aggression against Poland in 1939.