How Law and Justice destroyed Poland, democracy and the rule of law Cache Baba Follow Feb 4 · 27 min read

AFP 2019 / Wojtek Radwanski

Poland last month got its first official confirmed coronavirus case. The health care is severely underfunded and many MDs are not prepared for the virus in Poland. No masks, no gloves video, no tyvek. You may ask why?! Then read along.

EDIT: What’s worse, there’s the presidential election in May 2020 and at 3 am Saturday 28.03.2020 Poland’s parliament passed a law allowing postal voting for senior citizens and those in quarantine or self-isolating. According to many lawyers such a law is illegal and unconstitutional.

The amendment to the electoral code is a gross violation of the Sejm and Constitution regulations (no three readings, urgent amendment of the code contrary to the Constitution, inequality in relation to the right to access elections) (source)

Unconstitutionality in relation to the Constitutional tribunal rulings that such changes cannot be made up to 6 months before any election. Uneven access to voting. Every citizen needs to vote the same way if he is 18+. “Fill Grandma’s election card”. Election card thrown in the postal box after 2:00 am the next day

Not to mention that there will be no debates, there will be no campaigns, Andrzej Duda will be on the shown from morning to night in the government media in the upcoming months. Nobody will go out protesting because many people are scared of the coronavirus. Many young people won’t vote because they will be afraid to catch the virus.

Citing this news article

In total, Poland has 10,167 beds that can serve for people infected with coronavirus, which is 1,098 less than in 2003. The average use of beds in infectious wards is 64.9 percent, and in lung diseases wards 69.5 percent, so there are 3.2 thousand “Free” beds. The situation is also dire with specialists in infectious diseases and lung diseases. The former are 538, i.e. 110 less than in 2003, and the second 1261, i.e. 429 less than in 2003. With a larger scale epidemic, responsibilities will have to be shifted to doctors with other specialties. Fortunately, there are more doctors than 17 years ago.

But you know what? 2 weeks ago Law and justice gave 2B PLN for its TV station You remember Lisocka showing the middle finger?

The end of polish transformation

The investment priority does not mean that all welfare spending should be criticised. We should never turn a blind eye on inequality and applaud Korwin-Mikke, a controversial Polish libertarian. The problem with the PiS welfare policy lies in the fact that by making direct transfers it takes the easy way out. It is easier to transfer money to a bank account than to build a well-functioning education or health care system, providing high-quality public services. In a sense, by giving people cash, PiS deserts from the function which an effective state should be performing. If we absolutely need to make transfers, then they should go where they are most needed and most effective. The extension of the Family 500 Plus to cover a benefit for the first child as well, part of the Kaczyński’s Five programme supported by all parties in the Polish Sejm, will mainly go to families that do not require aid. The funds to be spent on this program could allow health care spending to reach the EU average level. There is no shortage of such examples. It is a pity that the opposition did not write up a competition for a smarter way to spend PLN 40 billion. Instead, it would rather take part in the competition announced by Jarosław Kaczyński and shout: „Not only will we not take it away, but perhaps even add some more”.

A month ago the 1000 black robes march was taking place in Warsaw. Lawyers from 22 European countries flew to Poland to show their support against PIS judicial changes. Today (04.02.2020) by night (8pm), President Duda signed the bill allowing judges to be punished. Please read below to know how Polish democracy has fallen under the rules of a populist.

Intro

The current government is destroying the country from inside-out with its nepotism, religious zeal, communistic tactics, social programs and funding verge organizations (or trolls).

Too few Europeans are aware of the depth of this crisis. The current polish government is destroying the country from inside-out with its nepotism, religious zeal, communistic tactics, social programs and funding verge organizations (or trolls). It breaks every single law, making unconstitutional laws since 2015 and destroying the court of law. How Poland is pushing EU into crisis — rise of populism. The video is 2 years old and now it’s worst

PIS staffed every single judicial court with its own people (ending the impartiality of judges). The very aggressive social 500+ program increased the job inactivity of Poles to 48% (48% of 15+ Polish citizens are NEET. Unemployment is at 5–6%). The Job vacancies in Poland are at the lowest level in EU. The corruption and nepotism are rampant, more than 1000 family members and friends are in public companies or in different Ministries. Polish PIS high ranking politicians are also making money together with pimps and mafia (see scandals down there). They are also giving millions of euros from public money to the Catholic Church. They are paying trolls to spew hate on Facebook, via Whatsapp and on the web. Some of them are hiding and not prosecuting pedophiles in the Catholic Church. Poland has almost the lowest innovation in EU. In 15 indexes tracking freedom and democracy in Europe Poland went from an average position of 12 out of 28 in 2010 to 23 out of 28 in 2019. I mean, not to diminish Trump’s “awesomeness” but imagine if the WHOLE republican party in the US was Trump-like.

For further reading I recommend: Sadurski, Wojciech. “Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown”, Oxford University Press, 2019.

Acronyms and main characters:

PIS- current govt, Law and Justice, a Far-right party with socialist programs. Majority in Parliament and the President is from PIS

PO- Civil Platform, main opposition, center. Majority in Senate.

J. Kaczynski, PIS leader, Twin brother of the dead Polish president

Z. Ziobro, General Prosecutor and Minister of Justice. PIS

M. Banas, Head of the Supreme Audit office. PIS

D. Tusk, Ex-leader of PO, ex-prime minister, ex-president of the Europ. Council, now- leader of the European EPP party

M. Morawiecki, Prime minister. PIS

T. Rydzyk Roman Catholic priest and Redemptorist, founder and director of the conservative Radio Maryja station and tv TRWAM

J. Kurski, chairman of the Polish national state broadcaster TVP. PIS

A. Duda, President. PIS

M. Kuchcinski, ex-Marshal of the lower house. PIS

B. Szydlo, ex-prime minister. PIS

PiS changes electoral rules in an unconstitutional move. Presidential “elections” 2020 are the Biggest legal blunder of the year

(This section was edited in July 2020)

Poland Is Showing the World How Not to Run a Pandemic Election. The upcoming Polish election is shaping up to be a farce. Washington should learn from Warsaw’s mistakes before November.

Why Poland’s “ghost election” sends a warning about its democracy

Wikipedia about this blunder

The Timeline:

Destruction of the rule of law.

Some of the passages below are taken from this pdf

No member state in the history of the EU has ever gone as far in subjugating its courts to executive control as the current Polish government. The Polish case has become a test whether it is possible to create a Soviet-style justice system in an EU member state; a system where the control of courts, prosecutors and judges lies with the executive and a single party.

Too few Europeans are aware of the depth of this crisis. Across Europe, national courts recognize the judgments of courts in other member states, whether these involve commercial law, the European arrest warrant or child custody. Judges must assume that courts across the EU operate according to common values and principles set out in the European Union Treaty and in its Charter of Fundamental Rights. Once judges across the EU have reason to doubt whether courts in any member state provide effective judicial protection, the legal order on which the EU rests collapses.

Freedom house — How PIS captured Poland’s Courts Similar to what happened in the US and Trump’s overtaking of the judiciary, happened in Poland.

Constitutional Tribunal changes

It all began with the constitutional crisis four years ago. Constitutional crisis and the destruction of the rule of law In 2015, parliament changed the law on the Constitutional Tribunal, which rules on the constitutionality of legislation. The changes allowed them to annul the nominations of three judges made by the previous parliament and appoint their own. It shortened the terms of the tribunal’s president and vice-president from nine to three years. The tribunal ruled the move unconstitutional in an open rebellion, but the dispute remains unresolved. Julia Przylebska — was illegally named the president of the Tribunal court by the president.

There’s too much to describe. For further info please visit the link. It is an amazing summary of the whole ordeal. timeline and another Great freedomhouse report.

Supreme Court changes

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said one of the most controversial reforms was to do with the Supreme court, which, among other duties, is responsible for confirming election results. The idea was to lower the age of retirement for Supreme Court justices from 70 to 65, but allow the Polish president to grant a five-year extension to whomever they deemed worthy. In 2019, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) — the EU’s highest court — ruled this was illegal, after an interim decision ordered 20 already-sacked judges be reinstated. Of course, PIS chose 2 new Constitutional judges, A politician Pawlowicz with communistic past and Piotrowicz, also a politician and a prosecutor that was an active communist during the 80 that prosecuted Solidarnosc. Both of them are above 65 years old.

Ordinary court judges

There were also moves to try a similar tactic in the general court system for judges and public prosecutors, lowering the age of retirement for women to 60 and for men to 65, down from the current 67. Under the reforms the justice minister, who is appointed by the ruling party, would have the power to extend a judge’s term. The laws were somewhat adjusted after pressure from the European Commission, but in November 2019 the ECJ shot down these laws, too, citing gender discrimination and political influence over the judiciary.

Disciplinary measures for judges

Another PiS addition allowed judges to be investigated and sanctioned for their court rulings. The disciplinary hearings and procedures were to be carried out by judges selected via parliament. These reforms were criticized by the European Commission because “judges are not insulated from political control and thus judicial independence is violated.” The commission brought legal action against Poland on this matter in October 2019.

National Council of the judiciary takeover

In 2017 PiS remodelled the National Council of the Judiciary, which selects candidates for appointment as judges by the President of the Republic. This allowed it, in the short term, to control appointments to the Supreme Court — including to a newly created Disciplinary Chamber, which hears disciplinary cases against judges, and to a new Extraordinary Appeals Chamber, which adjudicates on electoral issues. Over time PiS’ take-over of the National Judicial Council allows it to reshape the entirety of the judiciary. Fifteen of the 25 members of the National Council of the Judiciary were previously elected by judges themselves, as is common practice across Europe for such bodies. These fifteen judges are now elected by the majority in the Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament. The other ten members of the National Council of the Judiciary are: four members from the Sejm itself (all four members of PiS), two members from the Senate, one representative of the President of the Republic, the Minister of Justice, the president of the Supreme Court and the president of the Supreme Administrative Court. In total 23 of the 25 positions are directly appointed by political authorities.

After the election of the new KRS, a publication of the list with the names of judges declaring their support for specific candidates was refused. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled that those names must be disclosed. However, the Chancellery of the Sejm has yet to carry out the NSA’s ruling. The Constitutional Tribunal and the President of the Personal Data Protection Office have been roped into guarding the secret. KRS destruction

Restructuring the courts

Ahead of the 2019 election, the PiS proposed restructuring the court system. The justice minister said the country had four levels of courts that could be reduced to three. Critics said this could allow the government to reappoint most judges and get rid of undesirable ones through forced retirement or by sending them to distance appointments.

Muzzle bill

the muzzle bill passed last month (in Sejm, rejected by PO’s Senate, now signed into law by PIS President Duda), victimize judges questioning the legitimacy of the government’s legal appointments, saying it is unlawful to “show hostility to other authorities of the Republic of Poland and its constitutional organs or to criticize the basic principles of the Republic of Poland.” The bill also delegalize the preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). The bill allows firing judges (it is unconstitutional)

One of the worse Covid19 laws in EU.

Trampling Fundamental freedoms using a single ordnance and Critiquing the President will land you a year in jail. report.

In the latest special Covid19 law (already 4th lol) PIS smuggled an article straight from a communistic playbook about prosecuting people that critique the president. The sentence can be up to a year. They also smuggled a harsher law for abortions. Can someone tell me HOW it is related to Covid19? source

More Ruleoflaw

Political scandals

Illegal pardon

Illegal presidential pardon for CBA chief Kaminski In 2013, Law and Justice (PiS) MP Mariusz Kamiński — who served as head of the anti-corruption agency from 2006 and 2009 — was found guilty of overstepping his powers. He was sentenced to three years in prison and was banned from holding public office for ten years. Polish President Andrzej Duda pardoned Kamiński even though he was still appealing his sentence at the time. The case against Kamiński was then discontinued. A supreme court judge said that the president interfered in the legal process because Kamiński was proven neither innocent nor guilty when he was pardoned, making a future ruling redundant. The judge said that the president can pardon someone after any final appeal has been heard “because then he is not interfering with the judiciary”.

Merging the General Prosecutor with the Minister of Justice

The general prosecutor role was merged with the minister of justice Ziobro. source. This handed Ziobro and his subordinates greatly expanded power to politically interfere with rank-and-file prosecutors, their decisions, and their freedoms of speech and association. Poland Is Purging Its Prosecutors

200+ public prosecutors that are loyal to the Minister of Justice Ziobro (from PIS) All of them got promotions (or someone from their family) or pay raises. another list

The Ministry of Justice and Ziobro is paying trolls to destroy judges

Ziobro-Piebiak paid Troll scandal The Onet news portal published a report alleging that Deputy Justice Minister Łukasz Piebiak “arranged and controlled” an online campaign against Judge Krystian Markiewicz, the head of Iustitia, a judicial organization critical of the government’s efforts to restructure the judicial system, as well as against other inconvenient judges. According to the Onet report, Piebiak operated and financed an online campaign by a woman called Emilia who allegedly sent over 2,000 letters and emails about Markiewicz to other judges as well as to pro-government right-wing media. The messages contained fabricated, semi-confirmed and gossipy details of the judge’s personal life. According to Onet, Emilia obtained Markiewicz’s personal address from Piebiak so she could send him one of the letters.

Destroying the military

The creation of a territorial defense unit- a civilian army led by the ministry of defense to control “the situation inside Poland”. In addition, there was a purge of generals. and killing multibillion deals with France. About 37 generals and 47 colonels left. Why? Because they had to answer to a 27-year old assistant to the Defense Minister, former pharmacy assistant without a university degree. The Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper reported that Misiewicz was given a top communications job with PGZ ( largest defense consortiums in Central Europe) that pays $12,500 a month, huge sum in a country where the average pre-tax wage is about $1,150 a month. source

PIS decides to overhaul 40-years old t-72 instead of investing in German tanks. Not enough ammunition, uniforms NVG and other gadget went to the above unit,

In 2015, the Defence minister Macierewicz raided the Nato center in Warsaw at 1am to take control of documents and place their man at the helm

Taking over the state media

State media was taken over by PIS and is using mass propaganda and here Not only they are a propaganda tube but they also offend polish citizens ie — translation: defenders of pedophiles and alimonies-takers are the ones against judiciary reforms. They call every peaceful protest as a coup.

Polish public TV stations should be impartial and public. Not favoring any party nor government and give the same screen time to every party equally. Unfortunately, there was a purge of journalists the moment PIS won the election and the propaganda is stalin-like. Look at this graph how it changed. Polish TVP is the mouthpiece of the govt. In 2020 PIS voted to give an additional 2B pln per year for 5 years to public tv.

Public Main TV making fun of US ambassador by reading her tweet with a derogatory accent

The same can be said about the GUS — general statistical bureau. It is controlled by PIS and it is known to “change” metrics so every Inflation or unemployment metric can’t be trusted.

LBGT-free zones and Xenophobia.

Fear against refugeesand calls for xenophobia. A leaked draft of a new Polish migration policy discriminates against Muslims, ranks foreigners according to ethnicity and breaches human rights

PIS is supporting LGBT free zones where a third of Poland is declared as LGBT-free. During the presidential elections in 2020 Gay “ideology” is worse than communism, says Duda — PIS president. another source

10 minutes movie about Homophobia in Poland — 2020 presidential elections

Destroying education and HealthCare.

PIS cancels the in vitro program. Polish government program that covered most of the in vitro costs was immediately cut by the Law and Justice Party when it came to power in late 2015, even though Poland has one of the lowest birth rates in the EU. Catholic Church opposition to IVF is widely seen as one factor in the Polish government’s decision.

PIS also increased the minimum wage at the beginning of 2020. It created a weird paradox where a teacher and a starting MD is earning less than the minimal wage because they get paid from public money and the minimal wage change is for the private sector. And PIS wants to ban sex ed by labeling teachers as gay activists and pedophiles. Critics say Poland’s governing Law and Justice Party is wrecking the education system for political gain — and students are suffering.

No one cares for the environment.

Destruction of the oldest European forest in Poland by Minister of Environment Szyszko

The Bialowieza Forest is a UNESCO World Heritage site that sprawls across the border between Poland and Belarus, occupying almost 580 square miles of woodland and providing home to rare European wood bison among others. At least 10,000 trees are thought to have been felled in Białowieża, since the Polish environment minister, Jan Szyzko tripled logging limits there in 2016. The EU’s highest court has ruled that Poland’s logging in the Unesco-protected Białowieża forest is illegal, potentially opening the door to multi-million euro fines.

“Our (water) resources are comparable to those of Egypt,” it said in the report bearing the ominous title: “Poland, European Desert”.

Nepotism and colleagues in state-owned companies

PIS won the elections by wanting to fight nepotism. The most famous was “24yo Misiewicz, a former pharmacy assistant without a university degree was in the defense industry under Macierewicz. The apparent favoritism has raised ethics concerns in a party that won office promising to fight corruption.” source There is even a webpage listing more than 1000 cases of nepotism under PIS Misiewicze.

There is even a webpage listing more than 1000 cases of nepotism under PIS Pisiewicze

A list of more than 50 sons and daughters of PIS politicians in state-owned companies or in the European Parlament

Glapinski and his 2 “angels”

Glapinski’s Angels. Adam Glapiński is a long-time friend and ally of Poland’s de facto leader Jarosław Kaczyński, which is why he was given the job of running the country’s central bank. The scandal involves two of Glapiński’s senior aides. Polish media calculated their salaries and claimed that the bank’s director of communications and promotion, Martyna Wojciechowska, makes around 65,000 zlotych per month (over €15,000), 13 times the national average and more than the country’s president. The media also claimed that another National Bank of Poland (NBP) employee, Kamila Sukiennik, who manages Glapiński’s office, is also on the board of the Central Securities Depository — the financial instruments regulator — despite having no formal qualifications for the job.

The “so cruel” Ex-communists are in fact PIS members

They are accusing the opposition — PO — to consist mostly of ex-communists or communistic party members or collaborators. The issue is that most members of PO fought against communism and spent months/years in prison in the ’80. On the other hand, the PIS party members scarcely fought for polish liberty and some of its party members are former communistic party members or communistic prosecutors like Piotrowicz! or Polish CT judge. Here is a list in polish of all current PIS party members who served as PRL members during the communistic era. So, PIS is fighting against itself.

Illegal budget for 2017

The 2017 budget “was adopted” not in the Sejm assembly hall, but in a smaller room where the so-called parliamentary session was held immediately as a follow-up to the meeting of the parliamentary causus of PIS, where no reliable counting of vates was possible, and with many allegations taht the opposition MPs were not allowed in. [Constitutional Democracy in Crisis?, Oxfoord, 2018, p.268]

Ex-communists in PIS ranks. And PIS is very anti-left and anti-PRL.

They are accusing the opposition — PO — to consist mostly of ex-communists or communistic party members or collaborators. The issue is that most members of PO fought against the communism and spent months/years in prison in the ’80. On the other hand, the PIS party members scarcely fought for polish liberty and some of its party members are former communistic party members or communistic prosecutors like Piotrowicz! Some Polish TC judge are also ex-PRL members. Here is a list in polish of all current PIS party members who served as PRL members during the communistic era. So, PIS is fighting against itself. Another list with 20 names of ex-party members now in PIS

Funding the Catholic church with public money

PIS is very Pro-Catholic, most of their voters are devout Catholics. So it is no surprise that PIS is funding religious orgs from public money. Since Law and Justice came to power in 2015, Father Rydzyk’s businesses have received at least $55 million in subsidies from at least 10 ministries and state companies. His Radio Maryja station, which reaches millions and is often the sole source of information for many older voters in rural Poland, offers a daily diet of horror stories about a world without faith, where gay people control the political agenda, universities are corrupted by “neo-Marxists,” and the Roman Catholic Church is under mortal threat. Rydzyk Embroiled in Corruption Allegations

Hiding Pedophilia. Map of 259 victims of catholic pedophilia. When a documentary was released before recent local elections revealing devastating examples of how priests sexually abused children and how church officials covered it up, many in PIS saw it not as evidence of an institution that lost its way, but one that needed to be defended. Piotrowicz, the above communist prosecutor, dismissed in 2001 a case against a priest accused of raping six girls.

Polish PIS president Duda pardons a pedophile that raped his own daughter. He makes the pardon a week before elections

Smolensk commission

The so-called assassination of Kaczynski’s twin president brother in Smolensk created 90M PLN of costs. PIS created a “cult” around his death and even created a special commission that would prove it was an assassination. Kaczynski was using it on every occasion Don’t wipe your treacherous mugs with …. Ofc they didn’t prove anything and they buried the topic. Every 10th of every month for 3 years, PIS party leader Kaczynski was making a “show” commemorating his dead twin brother. He was using the police to secure his demonstration even if he has no lawful power (he is neither a president, neither the prime minister). New law expanding police surveillance and the police is getting raises after raises to keep them happy. The commemorations, the commission and the damages (paid only to the politicians’ families, not to the crew) amounted to 91M PLN.

The welfare revolution

PIS is also very pro-family. The party is giving away 500zl per month for every kid. In short, it has “bought” the elections. The Polish economy is unable to sustain such an endeavor; roots of populism. And it costs the economy 80B PLN between 2016 and 2019. The best part? The rate of births is negative for the last couple of years and inflation is still growing. According to the PIS Stats bureau, it is 3.5% and growing. However, many journalists made their own baskets of normal good and services and the inflation is closer to 10%. Additionally there is a growing debt that PIS tries to hide by shifting some debt into other Funds. One of them is the “Solidarity fund” that is not counted in the overall polish GDP, that is to support people with disabilities will pay for the 13th and 14th pension of people 65+.

Funding propaganda and trolls

Computational Propaganda in Poland: Russian troll factories

PIS bought the Pegasus spyware to spy on its citizens

In September 2018, private broadcaster TVN24 reported that Poland’s state audit body, NIK, was questioning an outlay of over 33 million zloty (€7.6 million euro) by the Justice Fund, a government fund to help victims of crime. According to TVN, the money went toward the purchase of a “new system to spy on telephones and computers, the most expensive system in the history of Polish secret services.” Reports that the covertly purchased system could be Pegasus — a top-performing spyware that is impossible to track — surfaced last week.

Polish troll farms promoting Duda and Kaczynski

Scandals

PIS has hundreds of scandals that each would destroy a modern government. They defrauded billions of PLN over the years, put 1000’s of family members in different state-owned companies. Below are listed the main sexual and financial scandals.