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         Tussle Over Judges Turns Into Constitutional Crisis in Poland

   by Reuters

   Poland is locked in constitutional crisis after the ruling
   conservatives appointed five judges to the highest judicial body in a
   move the opposition said was
   illegal.

   Opposition politicians and liberal media accused the government, which
   made the appointments during an evening parliament session on
   Wednesday, of seeking to take charge of democratic institutions in
   Poland.

   One parliament member said the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) was
   emulating Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orban, who has
   repeatedly challenged Brussels with nationalist policies from raising
   taxes on foreign banks to challenging the EU's handling of the migrant
   crisis.

   But PiS, which swept into power in an October election on a wave of
   nationalist sentiment, has said judges in the Constitutional Court need
   to be replaced to reflect the new balance of power.

   "We are introducing a constitutional order in Poland," PiS lawmaker
   Stanislaw Piotrowicz said in a debate preceding the Wednesday vote.
   "The Constitutional Court has been recently acting at PO's behest," he
   said referring to the former ruling party.

   The stakes are high. Gaining control of the Constitutional Court could
   make it easier for PiS to overhaul Poland's retirement system and curb
   foreign ownership of banking and media, the party's flagship policy
   plans.

   "This is a disgrace for parliament and for parliamentary democracy,"
   Grzegorz Schetyna, foreign minister in the previous centrist
   government, told reporters after Wednesday's vote.

   Five judges had been nominated by the previous government and a leftist
   opposition grouping before the Oct. 25 election.
   But President Andrzej Duda, a close ally of PiS, failed to swear them
   in, opening the way for PiS to challenge their candidacies.
   Duda swore in several of the new judges after Wednesday's vote in a
   midnight ceremony.

   In a further twist, the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday the
   previous government had the right to nominate three but not five of the
   judges it had picked earlier this year. It was not immediately clear
   how this would affect Wednesday's nominations.

   PiS accuses the former government, formed by the center-right Civic
   Platform (PO), of breaking the law when it passed a bill earlier this
   year allowing it to appoint five judges instead of the three it had
   been scheduled to elect in
   the 15-seat tribunal.

   "PO clearly breached the constitution," government spokeswoman Elzbieta
   Witek said. "PiS is trying to fix what PO broke."

   Rising nationalism

   The opposition says it will challenge Wednesday's nominations in the
   Constitutional Court. A protracted fight could hurt Poland's image as a
   model of post-communist transition.

   PiS says corrupt and inefficient state institutions are failing to
   ensure post-communist prosperity is shared fairly.
   "I am here to speak for my entire generation," said a 32-year-old
   government supporter, Magdalena Piejko, one of several dozen people
   demonstrating in front of parliament on Wednesday.

   "We are against the establishment which is preventing good change in
   Poland. People have voted for change and it seems we need to fight for
   it," she said.

   Since taking power, PiS has replaced the heads of all intelligence
   agencies and denied opposition lawmakers access to a rotating
   chairmanship on the legislature's intelligence panel.
   It also plans to give the justice minister direct control over
   prosecutors.

   In Hungary, Orban has taxed banks and other foreign businesses to
   finance income tax cuts and family benefits, moves which PiS is now
   looking to replicate.

   Orban has also curbed the jurisdiction of the top Constitutional Court
   and ensured that loyalists dominate public institutions, including the
   central bank.

   "It took Hungary more than a year to implement this scenario. Here it
   is being implemented in 12 days," Schetyna said.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/tussle-over-judges-turns-into-constit
   utional-crisis-in-poland/3086534.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/tussle-over-judges-turns-into-constitutional-crisis-in-poland/3086534.html