The Polish constitutional crisis, also known as the Polish rule-of-law crisis, is a political conflict ongoing since 2015 in which the
Polish government
The Government of Poland takes the form of a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. However, its form of government has also been id ...
has been accused of failing to adhere to
European and
Polish constitutional law. The
2015 elections
The following elections were scheduled to occur in the year 2015.
Africa
* 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015
* 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015
* 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015
* 2015 Burun ...
resulted in the
Law and Justice party (, PiS) winning control of both the presidency and the parliament. With this
government trifecta
A government trifecta is a political situation in which the same political party controls the executive branch and both chambers of the legislative branch in countries that have a bicameral legislature and an executive that is not fused. The ter ...
as a result of its participation in the
United Right, PiS used its power to appoint judges to the
Constitutional Tribunal
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
in 2015, leading to the
2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
* Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...
. The
government of Poland
The Government of Poland takes the form of a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. However, its form of government has also been iden ...
continued to expand its hold on
the judiciary resulting in the
2017 Supreme Court crisis, and the 2019
Polish judicial disciplinary panel law. These events have allowed the legislature and executive of the Polish government to have ''de facto'' control over judges and their appointments.
These moves have been condemned by the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
which initiated an
Article 7 process against Poland. The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
referred Poland to the
European Court of Justice (ECJ), stating in 2017, "the executive and legislative branches have been systematically enabled to politically interfere in the composition, powers, administration and functioning of the judicial branch."
In 2019 and 2020, the ECJ ruled against Poland in ''
Commission v Poland
Commission or commissioning may refer to:
Business and contracting
* Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered
** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anothe ...
'', ordering it to suspend several laws which interfere with the independence of the judiciary, but these rulings have been largely ignored in Poland.
The crisis briefly jeopardised the
EU coronavirus budget which allowed funds to be made available to EU member states on the condition of "rule of law", a clause which both the Polish government and
Hungarian government
The Government of Hungary ( hu, Magyarország Kormánya) exercises executive power in Hungary. It is led by the Prime Minister, and is composed of various ministers. It is the principal organ of public administration. The Prime Minister (''miniszt ...
threatened to veto in 2020.
Since the
changes to the judiciary, a
number of protests have taken place as a result of either the changes themselves, rulings by the new judiciary, or other legislative action deemed to break
European or international
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
legislation. This includes the
Black Protest and
Women's Strike against restrictions to women's rights (especially with regards to abortion), the
Polish Sejm Crisis against restrictions of press freedoms, and the
2020 LGBT protests in Poland against restrictions to LGBT rights. These rulings and legislative actions with the corresponding protest action have exacerbated the crisis in Poland.
Background
Constitutional Tribunal
The Constitutional Tribunal (TC) of Poland was founded in 1982 by the government of the
Polish People's Republic
The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...
. It oversees the actions of government, including legislative action, to ensure compliance with the
Constitution of Poland
The current Constitution of Poland was founded on 2 April 1997. Formally known as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, the last amended version of ...
. Judges are elected to the court by the
Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...
and approved by the
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
. The court is made up of 15 judges who serve single nine-year terms and which point they are replaced through agreement of the Sejm and President. In 2015, before the crisis, the court was made up of ten justices nominated by the
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
Civic Platform
Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk.
It ...
(PO) and five justices nominated by the
right-wing nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
Law and Justice Party (PiS).
Abortion law in Poland
In Poland it was illegal to have an abortion except where the mother's life was at risk, the pregnancy was a result of rape or if the foetus had "severe and irreparable" impairment. The largely Christian conservative base of PiS follow the
Catholic Church teaching on abortion. In 2017, a
Pew Research Center poll showed 51% of Poles thought abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
2015 Polish presidential election
In May 2015
Andrzej Duda
Andrzej Sebastian Duda (; born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and th ...
was elected as
President of Poland
The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Pola ...
with a radical right-wing platform, defeating incumbent
Bronisław Komorowski
Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who served as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015.
Komorowski served as Minister of Defence from 2000 to 2001. As Marshal of the Sejm, Komorowski exercis ...
of the Civic Platform. Prior to the election, Komorowski was believed to be the favourite to win. Duda promised to block the Constitutional Tribunal nominations of the Civic Platform-controlled Sejm until after the
2015 Polish parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015 for the eighth term of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, which ran from 12 November 2015 until 2019.
The election was won by the largest opposition par ...
. The outcome has been described as a shock in many media, as observers feared a potential conflict between Poland and the European Union as well as Duda's authoritarian tendency.
European migrant crisis
Following the election of Duda, relations between the European Union and Poland soured, especially in relation to the ongoing
European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
, where Duda refused to be part of the European migrant quota plan managed by the
European Asylum Support Office
The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) is an agency created by European Union Regulation 439/2010 within the area of freedom, security and justice framework to increase the cooperation of EU member states on asylum, improve the implementat ...
, causing the EU to initiate sanctions procedures against Poland and other
Visegrád Group
The Visegrád Group (also known as the Visegrád Four, the V4, or the European Quartet) is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-op ...
member states.
First Duda term
2015 Constitutional Court crisis
Between the election of Duda and the start of the
8th Sejm on 12 November 2015, 5 seats on the TC were due to expire. The
7th Sejm, controlled by PO and its allies completed its election process for replacement judges. However, Duda refused to swear in these nominees until after the sitting of the 8th Sejm.
Following the
2015 Polish parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015 for the eighth term of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, which ran from 12 November 2015 until 2019.
The election was won by the largest opposition par ...
in October 2015, PiS took control of the Sejm and elected its own five replacement judges, who were elected on 2 December and sworn in on 3 December by Duda.
PO claimed this was unlawful,
whereas PiS claimed that the initial election of judges by 7th Sejm was unlawful. On 3 December the TC ruled that 3 of the judges nominated by the 7th Sejm were legally elected; 2 were not. Despite the ruling, Duda did not swear in the legally elected judges. The President of the Constitutional Tribunal dictated that the new five judges should not hear cases until the situation was settled; in order to combat this, PiS passed a series of laws through the Sejm and Senate which compelled the TC to allow the judges to hear new cases. The new legislation was signed into law on 28 December. In January 2016, the TC ruled the five new judges elected by the 8th Sejm were legally appointed, but in March 2016 ruled the new legislation unconstitutional. The latter ruling was ignored by the Polish government, which considered the ruling "advisory".
The crisis provoked outrage in the European Union which began an investigation into Poland under
Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, describing the situation as threatening the
rule-of-law.
Protests both for and against the government of Poland occurred in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and other major Polish cities.
On 13 January 2016, the European Commission launched a formal rule-of-law assessment to determine a serious threat of a breach of Union law based on rules set out in 2014 and the provisions of
Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, regarding the amendments of the constitutional court and the public media law in Poland. A recommendation, the second step in the rule-of-law assessment, was issued on 1 June 2016. Iverna McGowan, director of
Amnesty International's European Institutes office in Brussels, commented: "The willingness of the commission to use the rule-of-law framework is a positive step towards a more serious approach by the EU to speak out and hold its own member states to account on their human rights records." Hungary declared that it will oppose any sanctions against Poland.
On 11 March 2016 the
Council of Europe's Venice Commission
The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin ...
, who had been asked for an opinion by the Polish government in December 2015, assessed the amendments as crippling the Court's effectiveness and undermining democracy, human rights and the rule of law. On 13 April 2016 the European Parliament, by 513 votes to 142 and with 30 abstentions, passed a resolution declaring that the Parliament "is seriously concerned that the effective paralysis of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland endangers democracy, human rights and the rule of law".
In July 2016, the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
issued a statement outlining its recommendations regarding "the rule of law in Poland", including the swearing-in of the three judges elected by the 7th Sejm and the adherence to the March 2016 TC ruling declaring that changes to the structure and functioning of the TC were unconstitutional.
2016 protests
Sejm Crisis
![Protest opozycji Sejm 16 grudnia 2016 Flickr Platformy Obywatelskiej](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Protest_opozycji_Sejm_16_grudnia_2016_Flickr_Platformy_Obywatelskiej.jpg)
In 2016, the government passed legislation which only allowed a small number of journalists and TV stations to report from parliament. This was seen as a continuation of PiS anti-journalistic policy, and resulted in protests. Inside the parliament building, opposition MPs staged a sit-in, forcing government legislators to pass bills elsewhere, and protestors outside the building gathered, shouting "freedom, equality, democracy".
Black Protest
The 8th Sejm held debates on reforming abortion law in Poland, in order to make them more restrictive. The votes on the new restrictive abortion legislation took place on 6 October and were voted down due to domestic and international pressure. Despite a lack of legislative changes, PiS MPs began ligation in order to see abortion become more restrictive.
2017 Supreme Court crisis
In 2017 the Sejm and Senate passed a law mandating retirement for all judges aged over 70, unless given an exemption by the
Minister of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
. Following widespread protests this law was vetoed by Duda. A revised bill, mandating retirement at aged 65 was eventually passed and signed by Duda, giving significant control to the government over judges and their livelihoods.
In December 2017 the European Commission warned that "over a period of two years the Polish authorities have adopted more than 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland", stating that "Article 7(1) of the
Treaty on European Union
The Treaty on European Union (2007) is one of the primary Treaties of the European Union, alongside the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The TEU form the basis of EU law, by setting out general principles of the EU's ...
provides for
the Council, acting by a majority of four fifths of its members, to determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of the common values referred to in Article 2 of the Treaty... The Commission can trigger this process by a reasoned proposal."
In December 2018, a new law was signed by Duda, reinstating all judges who had been removed from their posts by the 2017 law — despite this, concerns in the European Union remained. In April 2020, the ECJ ruled that Poland had still "failed to fulfil its obligations" under the
Treaties of the European Union
The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the European Union (EU) member states which sets out the EU's constitutional basis. They establish the various EU institutions together with their remit, procedures ...
.
Deforestation
Białowieża Forest
Białowieża Forest; lt, Baltvyžių giria; pl, Puszcza Białowieska ; russian: Беловежская пуща, Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a forest on the border between Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining pa ...
, an
ancient woodland
In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...
and
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
, has been subjected to large-scaling logging since 2017. 190,000 cubic metres (160,000-180,000 trees) of wood were felled in 2017 alone. The European Commission sued Poland at the European Court of Justice, which ruled that logging must be immediately halted as Poland had failed to fulfil its obligations under the
Habitats Directive
The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...
and the
Birds Directive
The Birds Directive (formally known as Council Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds) is the oldest piece of EU legislation on the environment and one of its cornerstones which was unanimously adopted in April 1979 as the Dire ...
,
and threatened to
fine the Polish state.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
also requested that the Polish government halt logging in the area. Despite this, the Polish government has continued to allow logging in Białowieża Forest, although at "lower intensity" according to
Greenpeace Poland, under the pretext of a
bark beetle infestation, a pretext which has been twice rejected by the ECJ.
However, several years later it turns out that the
bark beetle infestation got out of control, causing many more trees to die than would have been necessary, if the infestation had been controlled, by removing all infested and dead trees. Additionally, bordering private forests were lost to the infestation. The owners sued the government for not containing the infestation in time, claiming that the damage could have been prevented, had the expertise of their rangers and forest officials not been overruled by activists and foreign political entities.
LGBT-free zones
![Krasnik lgbtfreezone 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Krasnik_lgbtfreezone_02.jpg)
In 2019 and 2020, LGBT-free zones were declared across many local authorities in Poland, with over 100 municipalities voting to declare themselves "LGBT-free", meaning free of the popular ideology in their public education programs. Whilst without legal backing, such declaration were found by the
European Commissioner for Human Rights
The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent and impartial non-judicial institution established in 1999 by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the council's 46 member states. The ...
as "stigmatisation" which "directly impact" LGBT citizens, contrary to the
European Convention on Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...
and likely prohibited by Article 34 of
Constitution of Poland
The current Constitution of Poland was founded on 2 April 1997. Formally known as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, the last amended version of ...
. The European Union broadly denounced these declarations, with the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
voting overwhelming to condemn such declarations.
An LGBT activist placed "LGBT - Free Zone" road signs in front of the towns, creating the impression that they were officially placed by the towns and photographed them. These pictures were then used by media outlets all around the world. The misleading presentation made the story go viral, so the young activist's success was recognized by a Obama foundation scholarship. Polish opposition politicians, such as
Robert Biedroń, have compared the declaration to the ''
judenfrei
''Judenfrei'' (, "free of Jews") and ''judenrein'' (, "clean of Jews") are terms of Nazi origin to designate an area that has been "cleansed" of Jews during The Holocaust.
While ''judenfrei'' refers merely to "freeing" an area of all of its ...
'' zones created by the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
in Poland. Due to the breach of Article 2 of the
Maastricht Treaty
The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Communities, ...
, the European Union's
Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund can no longer be used in these areas. However, the Polish government pledged to fill the gap in funding to affected areas, in opposition to the EU but supported by the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
President
Ursula von der Leyen
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding suc ...
said "LGBTQI-free zones are humanity free zones. And they have no place in our Union" during her
State of the Union speech in September 2020, indicating the strength of opposition in the European Union.
2019 Judicial disciplinary panel law
On 20 December 2019 the Sejm voted to allow
Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court of Poland to remove judges deemed to be partaking in "political activity". This gave the government ''de facto'' control of entire judicial arm of the state. The law also gave government greater control over appointment to the position of head judge of the Supreme Court of Poland. The law was criticised by the
UN Human Rights Commission
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...
which stated the law "risks further undermining" the Polish judiciary.
The European Union also criticised the bill, with Poland risking further sanctions under Article 7 and by the European Court of Justice.
The EU urged Poland not to pass the bill, and to consult the
Venice Commission
The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin ...
, yet it passed.
The Association of Judges of Ireland condemned the Polish legislation.
Koen Lenaerts
Koen Lenaerts, Baron Lenaerts (; born 20 December 1954 in Mortsel) is a Belgian jurist and the President of the Court of Justice of the European Union. He is also a Professor of European Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and was a membe ...
,
President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, warned that "You can’t be a member of the European Union if you don’t have independent, impartial courts operating in accordance with fair trial rule, upholding union law".
The Polish Supreme Court stated that the bill was a "
continuation of the lawlessness of the 1980s". According to the court: "Everything is there: a ban on the freedom of speech by judges, the establishment of a surveillance mechanism and a drastic reduction of their right to have profiles on social networks". The Polish Supreme Court, prior to the bill passing, said that Poland overruling the primacy of EU law may force it out of the bloc.
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk ( , ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and leader of the Civic ...
, former
European Council president, warned the bill might force Poland out of the EU. Ombudsman
Adam Bodnar said the law "violates the Constitution and the ground rules of the rule of law" and "would definitively put Polish courts and judges under the control of the legislative and executive branches of government". Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers
Diego García Sayán and President of the European Association of Judges José Igreja Matos warned the legislation "runs contrary to judicial independence".
COVID-19 reporting
On 20 March 2020, the secretary of state of the Ministry of Health, , sent a written statement ordering voivodeship medical consultants to not make statements about SARS-CoV-2, the epidemiological situation, the risks for medical staff or methods of protection from infection, unless they had first consulted with the Ministry of Health or . Szczurek-Żelazko motivated the order by the need to provide correct, unified information and to avoid unjustified unrest in the medical community.
A surgeons group, , described the order as
blackmail and said that it risked catastrophe. The group stated that the COVID-19 pandemic showed Poland as "not at all prepared for crisis situations" with a "lack of equipment, basic personal protective gear and disinfectant materials and a lack of standards and procedures".
On 25 March 2020, the
Polish Ombudsman
The Polish Ombudsman ( pl, Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich, literally Advocate for Citizens' Rights, now referring to itself in English as the "Commissioner for Human Rights" and earlier as the "Human Rights Defender," often abbreviated ''RPO'') is a ...
Adam Bodnar sent a letter to the Minister of Health, Szumowski, stating that medical staff's freedom of speech and is guaranteed under
Articles 2 and
54 of the Polish Constitution and the right of the public to information is guaranteed under
Article 61 of the constitution. Bodnar stated that firing or punishing doctors for informing the public during the pandemic could be a violation of the "obligatory standards". Bodnar asked if Szumowski was aware of the situation and requested a clarification of policy.
2019–20 elections
In 2019 and 2020 PiS and the United Right retained control of the parliament and presidency of Poland. In the
2019 Polish parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 13 October 2019. All 460 members of the Sejm and 100 senators of the Senate were elected. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) retained its majority in the Sejm, but lost its majority in the Senate to the ...
, which had the highest turnout since the fall of
communism in Poland
Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (''Socjaldemokracja Królest ...
, PiS retained 43.59% of the popular vote for the Sejm and 44.56% of the vote for the Senate, marking a positive
swing in these elections.
In 2020, the
2020 Polish presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Poland on 28 June 2020. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 12 July, in which incumbent president Andrzej Duda, running with the support of Law and Justice, faced off ag ...
took place, with Duda winning with 51.03% of the vote. Independent observers from the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, pro ...
found that
Telewizja Polska
Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s.
Sinc ...
, the Polish
public broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
service, was inappropriately and "clearly biased" towards Duda and PiS in both elections.
Second Duda term
LGBT rights
![Rainbow_Black_Madonna_of_Częstochowa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Rainbow_Black_Madonna_of_Cz%C4%99stochowa.png)
In August 2020, following the arrest of
Margot Margot (; ) is a feminine French given name, a variant of Marguerite. It is also occasionally a surname. Persons named Margot include the following:
People with the given name Margot
* Margot Asquith, countess of Oxford and Asquith
* Marguerite ...
, an LGBT activist, several mass demonstrations took place across Poland. In central Warsaw, this protest degenerated and led to a violent police response, in turn resulting in further protest action. These protested against the "
LGBT-free zones", police violence and human rights rollbacks by the government.
It has been described by some media outlets as "Poland's Stonewall".
In January 2021, the trial of three Polish activists began, charged with
offending religious feelings
Offending religious feelings ( pl, Obraza uczuć religijnych) is a blasphemy law in Poland. According to Article 196 of the Penal Code: "Whoever offends the religious feelings of other persons by publicly insulting an object of religious worship, ...
after creating and posting posters of the
Black Madonna of Częstochowa
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa ( pl, Czarna Madonna / Matka Boska Częstochowska; la, Imago thaumaturga Beatae Virginis Mariae Immaculatae Conceptae, in Claro Monte, lit=Miraculous Image of the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary ...
with the
rainbow flag
A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the spectral colors of the visible light spectrum.
The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recogniz ...
, popularly known as the
Rainbow Madonna.
Abortion rights
On 22 October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal, with
disputed judges, ruled that abortion in cases of disability or life-limiting illness were unconstitutional, further limiting abortion rights in Poland. The decision was nearly unanimous, with judges ruling 11–2 in favour of limiting abortion. The court found it violated the right to
human dignity
Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inaliena ...
enshrined in the Polish constitution.
This precipitated significant protests and civil unrest. Protests began on the day of the ruling, but have continued, especially in major cities such as
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, which saw an estimated 100,000 people protest on 30 October. Protests continued throughout November and December 2020. On 27 January 2021, the ruling was formally published in ''
Dziennik Ustaw
''Dziennik Ustaw'' or ''Dziennik Ustaw Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej'' ( en, Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland, abbreviated Dz. U.) is the most important Polish publication of legal acts. It is the only official source of law for promulgati ...
'' and enforcement of the ruling began across Poland, precipitating further waves of unrest. Poland now has one of the most restrictive
abortion law
Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances ...
s in Europe, described as a "near-total ban" by the BBC as 98% of previous abortions in Poland took place under the laws now deemed unconstitutional.
Opposition groups
Domestic
Parliamentary parties
*
Civic Coalition, the main opposition
**
Civic Platform
Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk.
It ...
, the second largest party in the Sejm
*
The Left, political alliance of left-wing parties
Other
*
All-Poland Women's Strike, social movement for women's rights
**
Consultative Council, strategy council for the All-Poland Women's Strike
*
Campaign Against Homophobia
Campaign Against Homophobia (actual name: ''Kampania Przeciw Homofobii'', abbreviation: ''KPH'') is a Polish gay rights organisation, which aims to promote legal and social equality for people outside the heteronorm. It was founded in Warsaw in Se ...
, gay rights organisation
*
Citizens of Poland, pro-democracy civic movement
*
Committee for the Defence of Democracy,
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
promoting "European values"
*
Polish Judges Association
International
*
Amnesty International
*
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
*
Greenpeace
*
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is the name of non-governmental organizations in a number of countries established under the now defunct International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.
The organizations include:
*
* Turkmen Helsinki ...
*
Women on Web
Women on Web (WoW) is a Canadian non-profit organization that aims to increase access to safe abortion known for its online abortion service accessible in multiple countries. The organization was founded by Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physici ...
Role of the European Union
Under
European Union law, the European Court of Justice may strike down
member state
A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation.
Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign state ...
law if the laws are incompatible with
Treaties of the European Union
The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the European Union (EU) member states which sets out the EU's constitutional basis. They establish the various EU institutions together with their remit, procedures ...
, or if they concern one of the shared competences.
Examples of the former include
judicial independence,
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
(including
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
and
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, ...
) and
freedom of the press. Thus, the European Commission refers to a lack of
rule of law in Poland, as Union law is not being applied.
Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union allows the Union to suspend the rights of membership if a nation breaches the vaguely formulated Article 2, namely "respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities". However, this would be subject to a veto by any other member state, with
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
indicating it would veto such action. Despite this, attempts have been made to introduce sanctions or
make funding conditional on the rule-of-law, such as in the
Next Generation EU
Next Generation EU (NGEU, also called the European Union Recovery Instrument) is a European Union (EU) economic recovery package to support the EU member states to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular those that have been particul ...
budget,
Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund.
See also
*
Polexit
*
Anti-LGBT rhetoric
Anti-LGBT rhetoric comprises themes, catchphrases, and slogans that have been used against homosexuality or other non-heterosexual sexual orientations in order to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. They range from the ...
*
Democratic backsliding
Democratic backsliding, also called autocratization, is the decline in the democratic characteristics of a political system, and is the opposite of democratization. Democracy is the most popular form of government, with more than half of the nat ...
*
European Charter of Fundamental Rights
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR) enshrines certain political, social, and economic rights for European Union (EU) citizens and residents into EU law. It was drafted by the European Convention and solemnly proclai ...
*
European Convention on Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...
*
Polish Ombudsman
The Polish Ombudsman ( pl, Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich, literally Advocate for Citizens' Rights, now referring to itself in English as the "Commissioner for Human Rights" and earlier as the "Human Rights Defender," often abbreviated ''RPO'') is a ...
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-present Polish constitutional crisis
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
Germany–Poland relations
Judiciary of Poland
Controversies in Poland
Politics of Poland
Legal history of Poland
LGBT rights in Poland
Abortion in Poland
Freedom of expression in Poland
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
2015 in Poland
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
2016 in Poland
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
2017 in Poland
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
2018 in Poland
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
2019 in Poland
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
2020 in Poland
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
2021 in Poland
Polans