KOD Warsaw, February, 2016. Flickr/Jaap Arriens. Some rights reserved.The Polish political scene has been deeply polarised since the government led by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party took office last autumn following its decisive victory in the October parliamentary election. The catalyst and main focus for this has been a bitter political and legal struggle over the membership and functioning of Poland’s constitutional tribunal, a powerful body that rules on the constitutionality of laws.
Constitutional crisis
The opposition has been extremely successful in promoting its narrative that the government’s actions represent an attempt to interfere in the independence of the judiciary. This has provided government opponents with a highly emotive touchstone issue which they have bundled up with a number of other measures, such as a new law that they claim politicises public broadcasting, to accuse Law and Justice of undermining the fundamentals of democracy and the rule of law.
