FOR in the media

Thirty years ago, Leszek Balcerowicz unleashed the “shock therapy” that put Poland on the path to rapid economic growth after decades of communist rule. Business boomed, the economy expanded and the former finance minister and central bank chief won plaudits in the West for his reforms.

Patryk Wachowiec, a legal analyst at the Civil Development Forum, said this change was particularly troubling as it would undermine the primacy of EU law.

“Since 1964, the inherent principle of primacy of EU law over national law has been recognised in ECJ case law: judges have an obligation to disapply national law when it is contrary to EU law, without consulting their own national constitutional tribunal,” he said.

30 years after the velvet revolutions of Eastern Europe, the think tank Istituto Bruno Leoni has awarded its prize celebrating freedom to the Polish economist Leszek Balcerowicz. In 1989 he was the key man of the reforms in Poland, the first country that went from communism to the free market. The NBQ asked him how he did.

On 8 July 2019, prosecutor Mariusz Krasoń was relocated from the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Cracow, Poland to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Wrocław-Krzyki, almost 300 km away, and two levels lower in the hierarchy. The Justice Defence Committee (KOS) indicates that in May 2019, prosecutor Krasoń initiated a resolution of the Assembly of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Cracow.

The report by the Lex Super Omnia Prosecutors’ Association details the negative consequences of the changes in the prosecutorial service implemented by the Law and Justice government in Poland. It also reveals a number of pathological situations related mainly to personnel policy as the foundation of the so-called prosecutorial reform. 

In July 2019, the Polish Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology published its report regarding transfer of central public administration offices from Warsaw to smaller cities – interchangeably referred to as deglomeration or delocalization – an idea popular in the Law and Justice’s government circles

On July 8, 2019, prosecutor Mariusz Krasoń was relocated from the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Cracow, Poland, to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Wrocław-Krzyki, which is almost 300 km away, and two positioned levels lower in the hierarchy. The Justice Defense Committee (KOS) indicates that in May 2019, prosecutor Krasoń initiated a resolution of the Assembly of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Cracow.

With contributions from Ismaël Emelien, Karin Svanborg-Sjövall and Andreas Johansson Heinö, and Agata Stremecka

Since 2016, concern over the resurgence of illiberal populist political parties and movements has been palpable in Europe and the United States. The election of Donald Trump, the United Kingdom’s referendum to leave the European Union, and the electoral advances of far-right parties in many European states, including France and Germany, created the sense that populist parties were a new, unstoppable political force in democratic politics.1 Yet in 2019, the notion that populist parties are the future of European politics seems far less certain.

Marek Tatała gave the comment about the elections in Poland to the Estonian public television. He said that one area where Jaroslaw Kaczynski is not so advanced in consolidating power is the media environment which should be protected against Orbanization or "re-polonization".

Since coming to power in 2015, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has captured state institutions, attacked the independence of the courts and violated the basic norms of the legislative process.

Despite these controversial moves, the government has maintained a high level of support among Polish voters. In large part, that’s because the Polish economy is still surprisingly strong.