Beata Szydło on Polish Judicial Reforms: “We Will Keep Our Promise”

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło responded to the “tantrum” being thrown by the opposition in reaction to the ruling party’s reforms of the judiciary: “We will proceed as promised.”

Many thanks to Ava Lon for translating this article from the Catholic news site Gość Niedzielny:

Beata Szydło delivered a message. It defended the reform of the judiciary.

July 20, 2017

“The aggression and frustration of the elite of the Third Republic of Poland will not stop the remedial processes that put more money from economic growth into the pockets of ordinary Poles,” said Beata Szydło in the national television message.

On Thursday evening the prime minister referred to parliamentary work on the judiciary reforms.

“We know that they [the courts] function badly, so we are responding to the widespread expectation of Poles who want the courts to act efficiently and honestly.

“Today that’s not the case. There is no democratic control over the judicial branch. We want to introduce it, as is the case in Western European countries: Germany, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Holland or Belgium,” said Szydło.

“The atmosphere that prevails over the reform of the judiciary may cause your anxiety,” said Prime Minister Szydło in a televised address to Poles.

According to her, the fights depicted in the media are provoked by the opposition, which today is called “total”. “In the former government, these same politicians argued that they represent the rational and non-conflicting side of the political scene,” emphasized the prime minister.

“When the Polish people removed them from power, they showed their true face: anarchy, aggression, bullying, and provocation instead of a substantive debate, a taking away of microphones, switching off the lights [referring to real situations, where the opposition was childishly trying to silence conservative MPs], street protests and denunciations abroad [Ryszard Petru from Nowoczesna],” said the head of government. “This is a manifestation of arrogance and detachment from the problems of ordinary citizens, “ she continued.

As she emphasized, Poles want justice in society. “Temida [the Greek goddess of justice] is said to be blind; her covered eyes symbolize equality before the law. In Poland, until now, Temida had only one eye covered, and she rarely saw crimes committed by the powerful. And the weak couldn’t always count on justice,” she pointed out.

In her speech, the head of government emphasized that most judges work honestly. “But the public’s opinion of them is spoiled by many examples of pathologies in an environment that cannot cleanse itself. And opposition politicians who today shout the loudest, didn’t do anything about it when they were in charge,” she said.

“We are a responsible government. When we promise something to our citizens, we want to keep our promise. We have a vision of changes, so the work is fast and decisive, and we will not be put off by the pressure from the Polish and from foreign defenders of the interests of the elites,” she declared.

As Szydło said, PiS [Law and Justice, the ruling party] went into the election with a message repairing the state. She affirmed that Polish issues are going in the right direction and that Poles feel safe.

“As prime minister, I have the responsibility to assure you that the aggression and frustration of the elites of the Third Republic of Poland do not stop the remedial processes, because thanks to those processes more money from economic growth goes into the pockets of ordinary Poles,” the prime minister said.

“The opposition is throwing a tantrum today, so I appeal to reason and responsibility,” she said. “And I want to assure you that the reforms you expect will come into force,” stressed Szydło.

She reminded them that at Sunday’s demonstration, opposition politicians displayed the inscription on the wall of the Supreme Court: ‘This is our court’. “Law and Justice is reforming the courts so they will work well and honestly, and serve all the Polish people,” concluded the prime minister.

10 thoughts on “Beata Szydło on Polish Judicial Reforms: “We Will Keep Our Promise”

  1. When she’s done fixing the Polish courts, I’d appreciate if she could come and do the same here in Canada… we have a rotten “justice” system, but with the best PR, which means that most people have no clue quite how bad it is…

  2. No Trump supporter needs to be explained what damage activists judges can cause (see travel ban). The Liberal-Socialists loaded with left wing activists in the government before a patriot national conservative government got to power in Poland. In Hungary they found that Soros NGOs are providing free “political” and “social sensitivity” seminars to judges… To those judges who by law are FORBIDDEN to have political associations and express political opinions in public.

    • FYI, similar things are done here in Canada, via the National Judicial Institute. It’s not a Soros outfit, but a government one, but the purpose of indoctrinating judges is the same.

  3. As best as I understand it, based on conversations with friends who are lawyers or political pundits, the changes being introduced by Law and Justice (PiS) will change the staffing of the courts, but not the systemic corruption, and will leave the door open for future governments to come in and dump all the new judges and replace them with their own.

    This issue has caused a lot of strife here in Poland and it’s not just the result of the communist-progressive left, though they surely play a role. PiS is better than the alternative, but they often appear tone-deaf, ignorant of good public relations and try to shove through changes in a matter of hours or days instead of taking weeks or several months to achieve the same without a huge backlash from the public.

    As far as I can tell Trump’s fantastic speech of several weeks ago has been all but forgotten, replaced with people at eachother’s throats over the judicial issue. What Poland really needs is a new constitution to replace the appartchik-produced one from the late 90s. PiS approval ratings are about 33%, which has stayed consistent since they came to power in 2015, and is better than the opposition, but hardly a mandate for the sweeping changes that are needed. A lot of it comes down to ignorance and brainwashing of most of the population under communism and in the quarter century since it ended. PiS and Poland are in dire need of leaders like Orban or Trump.

    • Question is, do the present Polish government have 2/3 majority to create a new Constitution? Hungary had one but even then then the EU made furious liberal attacks against them, when they replaced the Communist basic law made in the 1950’s.
      As far I can see it, they maybe doing it wrong, but it does not matter, they would have been attacked, no matter what!

    • FAKE NEWS !!
      I/m Polish-Canadian currentlly living in Poland.
      “Nick” is [being less than entirely candid].
      Hi spreading liberal-globalist propaganda in soft-version !
      Core of the Justice Reform in Poland is to create INDEPENDENT Justice System..
      Independent from Communist appointed Judges ( and theirs offspring) from a District Courts to Highest Court…
      Corruption Level among them is unimaginable for Western Standards..
      So call ” Socialist Justice System” was introduce in Poland in 1945 by Soviets and wasn’t change until now..Some of the “judges ” are original relicts from Communist system in Poland.

      • Max, [insult redacted], eh? The reform included retiring all supreme court judges, giving the minister of justice the sole power to choose which judges remained. How’s that for an independent judiciary [insult redacted]? I suppose President Duda is also a “liberal-globalist” for vetoing this shoddy legislation? [insult redacted], [insult redacted], you [insult redacted].

  4. I wish Poland well. Hope she can solve these problems. I have watched Poland as well as Hungary and as much as possible all of eastern Europe as they struggle with various problems, many caused by communism, and that is just my opinion.

    Crossware, I would like to thank you for all the information you bring with you. Very much appreciated. Koszonem? Not sure how to spell that, my Hungarian is very poor but thank you!

    • Hi, thank you very much! I do my best…
      “Köszönöm” is the correct spelling with accents, but of course it is completely understandable. The answer: nagyon szívesen!

  5. I hope we can keep track of how Poland deals with these judicial problems. These issues seem to be quite similar all across the West.

    In this, as in many things, the far left appears to be using exactly the same playbook in all democracies. There will always be a number of judges who can be persuaded to abuse their powers, or who will cheerfully persuade themselves to do so.

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