Examples of specific proceedings and decisions show what Zbigniew Ziobro and Jarosław Kaczyński stand to gain from staffing the courts with ‘their own people’.

While wondering whether the change in the regulations is good, it would be worth asking yourself who will benefit from it. Local governments, residents and nature will lose out on the change in the Assessment Act, while the government and the investors it selects will gain on the basis of criteria known only to the politicians. Good change?

‘We cannot remain silent in the light of such an intensity of ill will and such a gross violation of fundamental human and civil rights. It is also our duty, which arises from our judicial conscience and our knowledge of the law, to point out that cooperation with the commission according to the principles of this unprecedented act constitutes a violation of values that are dear to our traditions and respect for the common good,’ wrote the retired judges of the Constitutional Tribunal.

The commission investigating Russian influence, seen as a tool against Donald Tusk and the ‘enemies’ of PiS, could result in the blocking of EU funds for Poland.

Disciplinary cases are pending for Judges Anna Głowacka and Edyta Barańska from Kraków for implementing ECtHR and CJEU judgments. They are being prosecuted by Zbigniew Ziobro’s people – Piotr Schab and Przemysław Radzik. Similarly, the latter are deliberately breaching the CJEU’s ruling

Will the new president, Zbigniew Kapiński, be up to managing an important chamber of the Supreme Court? Will he behave like a truly independent judge and protect it from political upheaval and pressure?

People who hold degrees in medicine, political science or no degree at all are specialists in criminal proceedings and state security. One also has a BSc in farming, one is a construction engineer and there is a technical college graduate. Such a bill could not have been prepared by this group of people – it was prepared by someone else and presented to them for signature, says Professor Mirosław Wyrzykowski.

PiS MPs have submitted a bill to the Sejm toughening the penalties for espionage and introducing an unintentional variant of this offence. ‘This could be a provision for abuse and to be used politically,’ warns a criminal law judge.

PiS is trying to force through an Act appointing a commission ‘To investigate Russian influence’ in the Sejm.

The prosecutor of independent judges, Przemysław Radzik, is threatening Judge Wojciech Maczuga with disciplinary action for applying European law. Radzik’s action is a further attack on the shaky compromise between PiS and the European Commission over billions from the NRRP