This is why Poland struggle to fix its justice system

To fix the judicial system, the government must pass laws — but under the Polish Constitution, those laws must be approved by the president. This is where the coalition's project ran aground

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Waldemar Zurek speaks during an interview with media at the Warsaw headquarters of the Ministry of Justice in Warsaw, Poland.

(File/Associated Press)

When Donald Tusk's government came to power in Poland two years ago, it had high ambitions to roll back a political takeover of the judiciary by its nationalist, conservative predecessor.

The reality proved more complicated. Law and Justice (PiS), which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges, and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to faraway locations. It appointed enough sympathetic judges to the Constitutional Tribunal that a PiS-aligned president can delay government plans by sending them for constitutional review.

European courts have condemned the PiS changes, while regular Poles found themselves facing legal chaos. Efforts to undo them, however, have been blocked by two successive PiS-aligned presidents.

For over a decade, Poland has been deeply polarized between a bloc of urban, pro-EU voters backing Tusk and a mix of conservatives and other voters frustrated with Poland's post-socialist development, who have favored PiS. The gridlock in justice further divides the population. Tusk, who came to power promising to fix the situation, removed his first justice minister, Adam Bodnar, in July because he wasn't seeing enough results.