Polish president vetoes controversial court reforms
WARSAW: Poland’s president on Monday vetoed controversial judicial reforms that had prompted huge street protests and threats of unprecedented EU sanctions.
President Andrzej Duda’s veto was a surprise move as he is a close ally of the ruling rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party that had pushed the reforms.
Duda said he had made his decision after consulting legal experts at the weekend, when thousands of people took to the streets across Poland urging him to veto proposals which critics say threaten the rule of law.
The reforms now return for amendment to Parliament, where they require a three-fifths majority — which the PiS does not have — to go through unchanged.
“I have decided to send back to Parliament — therefore, to veto — the law on the Supreme Court, as well as the law on the National Council of the Judiciary,” Duda said in a televised announcement.
“This law would not strengthen the sense of justice” in society, he said.
The opposition welcomed his move.
“It’s without a doubt a step in the right direction,” said Kamila GasiukPihowicz, a lawmaker from the liberal Nowoczesna party.
“It’s proof that pressure from citizens can work.”
Polish freedom icon Lech Walesa, a Nobel Peace laureate and former president, said he “was pleasantly surprised.”
“The people have woken up, young people have woken up... We’ll do what we can so that these people (the conservatives) get off the wrong path or that we manage to replace them,” Walesa said.