Poland’s rightwing government has been accused of dragging the country back in time by Donald Tusk, president of the European council, as its ministers moved a step closer to taking control of the judiciary.

Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said the ruling Law and Justice party was reversing decades of progress through its authoritarian agenda.

On Thursday MPs in Poland’s lower chamber voted to approve a highly contentious law giving control of the nation’s supreme court to the president instead of judges, sparking new protests in Warsaw.

The move came just 24 hours after the first vice president of the European commission, Frans Timmermans, warned that such was the threat to the independence of the country’s judges from a series of proposed laws, the EU was “very close” to triggering article 7 – a mechanism, as yet unused, that could ultimately lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the council of ministers.

Following a telephone conversation with the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, on Thursday, Tusk issued a public statement calling for an urgent meeting to discuss “the dangerous consequences for Poland’s standing on the world stage”.

He said: “It falls to us, together, to avert bleak outcomes which could ultimately lead to the marginalisation of Poland in Europe. It is my belief that its most recent actions go against European values and standards, and risk damaging our reputation.

Protesters embrace while demonstrating in front of the lower house of the Polish parliament. Photograph: Bartłomiej Zborowski/EPA

“They transport us – in the political sense – in time and in space, backwards and eastwards. The president most certainly thinks otherwise. But not even the deepest differences can absolve us from our duty to work together for the good and safety of our mother country.”

He added: “Bringing judges under the control of the governing party in the manner proposed by the Law and Justice party ruins an already tarnished public opinion of Polish democracy.

“We must therefore find a solution which is acceptable to the Polish public, to the parliamentary majority and to the opposition, to the president and to the European Union. I know that is no easy feat. It will require concessions, mutual respect and a little trust. It is not easy, but it can be done. But we do not have much time.”



Q&A Why does the Polish government want to appoint judges? Show The attempt by Poland's Law and Justice party 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.

Aides to Duda said the president, who is aligned to the ruling party, had rejected Tusk’s offer.

The new law passed through the lower chamber gives the nation’s president the power to influence the court’s work and to appoint its judges. It calls for the dismissal of the court’s current judges, except for those chosen by the president.

Thursday’s vote was 235-192 with 23 abstentions after a parliamentary commission summarily rejected 1,300 opposition amendments to it.

The legislation still needs to win approval from the senate, which is expected to be granted at a session Friday, and by Duda, who has so far followed the ruling party line.

Protesters were on Thursday kicking the metal barriers that separated them from the parliament and chanting “shame”. Some carried banners urging Duda to veto the bill.