No, we're not Polish. But anyone who stands up to the repressive, freedom-threatening European Union (See Netherlands for future threats.gatestoneinstitute.org/9311/europe-free-speech ) gets our vote of support. Hello Brexiters.
Bureaucrats are great at threatening people. It's the essence of PC. Rightwing nationalists (MSM loves to attach names to anyone and everyone who differs with them.) in Poland have, according to the Financial Times, taken heart from Brexit and Trump. One Times columnist writes, "Tide of populism threatens to engulf Austria and Italy." When it was a tide of PC designed to silence any and all dissenters, these folks were remarkably silent.
You have it all in the last sentence of this quote from the Times: "Warsaw....." It tell you all you want to know.
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The defiant stance has come despite the commission’s threats of sanctions and its unprecedented decision to accuse Warsaw of endangering democracy, which some EU officials fear will be found to be toothless.
“As far as we are concerned, there is no procedure,” said a senior Polish diplomat in reference to the “rule of law” measures brought against the country. “We want to fix this problem by ourselves. There is almost no one in Warsaw who will listen to what the commission wants to say.
“As far as we are concerned, there is no procedure,” said a senior Polish diplomat in reference to the “rule of law” measures brought against the country. “We want to fix this problem by ourselves. There is almost no one in Warsaw who will listen to what the commission wants to say.
“We should not be triumphalist … but I do not expect any developments,” he added, echoing comments by other senior officials.
The EU has faced a dilemma over how to respond to Poland. The commission relies on member state support for its warnings to carry weight.
Yet Poland’s ally Hungary will block any action, and Germany and other big countries are unwilling to intervene for fear it would achieve nothing but sour relations with Warsaw. Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission president, has hinted that proposing sanctions would be pointless “because some member states are already saying they will refuse to invoke it”.
The political drift has given the Warsaw government space to achieve its goals. The expiry of the court chairman’s term on December 19 will allow it to install its own nominee and raise the number of government-friendly judges on the bench.
“It is pretty inevitable that by 19 December they will have control of the constitutional tribunal … I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” said a senior EU diplomat involved in the issue.
Since coming to power a year ago, Law and Justice has passed a series of laws giving it control over public media channels and the public prosecutor, while purging opponents from state-run companies. This has startled EU officials, who fear the Law and Justice government is replicating the “illiberal democracy” of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s leader.
Warsaw accuses the commission of overreaching and trampling on Poland’s sovereignty.
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