Large majority of Poles view government’s judicial policies negatively, find new polls

Over three quarters of Poles view the government’s judicial policies negatively and a majority think they have brought courts under greater political influence, according to two new polls. Even among supporters of the ruling coalition, negative views prevail. The findings reflect similar results from previous surveys.

In response, the justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, called the polling “biased”. He defended his policies, saying that any failings are the fault of the president, prime minister and European Union. He pledged to continue “reforming” the judiciary and rejecting “EU diktat”.

The Polish government’s judicial overhaul has been found to undermine the rule of law by a number of domestic and international bodies. It has brought Poland into regular conflict with Brussels, resulting in fines and the blocking of the disbursement of EU funds.

A variety of indicators show that the changes have failed to improve the functioning of courts, and in fact have made it worse. Meanwhile, although the government has presented its judicial reforms as a means of purging former communists from the courts, it has itself appointed former communists to senior judicial positions.

In a United Surveys poll for Wirtualna Polska, respondents were asked how they assess the changes to the judiciary implemented by Ziobro since 2015, the year that the current national-conservative government came to power and Ziobro was made justice minister.

Just over 77% said they rated the changes badly (including 40.4% very badly and 36.8% quite badly), while 11% viewed them positively (including 1.3% very positively and 9.8% quite positively). Even among supporters of the ruling coalition, only 24% held positive views while 64% were negative.

Separately, an IBRIS survey for Rzeczpospolita found that: 69% of Poles think Ziobro’s policies have not increased trust in the judiciary; 72% that they have not sped up the work of courts; 57% that they have subordinated judges to the political authorities; and 50% that they have restricted the independence of the judiciary.

The same poll found that 56% think Poland should meet Brussels’ demands regarding the rule of law in order to unblock billions of euros in EU Covid recovery funds, while 29% think that it should not.

Wirtualna Polska reports that internal polling commissioned by the government has found similarly negative results. Publicly published surveys have also consistently shown opposition to the government’s judicial policies, which most Poles regard as an attempt to violate the rule of law.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki – who is widely seen as a bitter rival of Ziobro – admitted that some of the government’s judicial reforms had “certainly not lived up to expectations”.

This morning, however, Ziobro hit back. He said that United Surveys’ question was “biased” because it asked about judicial changes made by him specifically. In fact, he noted, some of his proposed reforms were blocked by the president, Andrzej Duda, and the prime minister.

“The changes stopped because there was no political will and [because of] the desire to reach an agreement with the EU, which was intimidating [Poland],” argued Ziobro in an interview with Radio Plus.

In 2017, Duda vetoed two of the government’s judicial bills. However, the president proposed similar solutions himself that were later introduced. Some of Ziobro’s other policies have been blocked or watered down, but he has still implemented fundamental changes to the functioning of the judiciary.

A number of those policies have been found to be in violation of Polish and European law. Ziobro argues that this is because many domestic courts are still controlled by a judicial “caste” defending its privileges and because the EU is itself violating the rule of law by illegitimately preventing Poland from deciding its own affairs.

“I am opposed to the imposition of solutions on Poland that limit Polish democracy and treat Poland as a colonial country,” said the justice minister this morning. “There is no consent to the implementation of the EU’s diktat.” He then promised further “revolutionary changes” to Poland’s judicial system.

Main image credit: Jakub Wlodek / Agencja Gazeta

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.