The Ministry of the Environment has started work on a plan to disclose the financing of NGOs. In this plan, NGOs will be obliged to state that they are being financed from abroad. Laws like this already operate in Russia, Hungary, and Israel.

The Supreme Court judges did not choose candidates to be Małgorzata Gersdorf’s successor for the second day in a row. On Saturday, the acting president of the Supreme Court, Kamil Zaradkiewicz, again rejected all the motions of the judges of the ‘old’ Supreme Court and took the floor away from them. And when the result of valid voting was not in line with his thoughts, he stopped the session.

The European Association of Judges (EAJ) supports the idea that Poland’s National Council of the Judiciary should be removed from the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ). “For several years I have been speaking loudly about the dangerous path onto which Poland’s rulers have gone. Their aim is to destroy the separation of powers,” said the president of the European association in January

New acting first president of the Supreme Court judge Kamil Zaradkiewicz asks the Supreme Court’s judges to refrain from public activity, in particular in the media

Dozens of EU and constitutional law professors and associations of judges and prosecutors urge the European Commission to act and to prevent irreversible changes that will de facto exclude Poland from the circle of European legal culture and western democracy

The National Prosecutor Bogdan Święczkowski, one of the Minister of Justice/ the Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro’s closest associates, has demanded clarification from the First President of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Gersdorf. He wants to know why she suspended the Disciplinary Chamber’s power of adjudication. Święczkowski’s letter sets a dangerous and unprecedented precedent that can be seen as an attempt at intimidation or to bring criminal charges.

The Constitutional Tribunal, by a decision of its full bench, ruled that the resolution of the three combined chambers of the Supreme Court is incompatible with the constitution and international law. According to Professor and CJEU Judge Marek Safjan, this ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal is “highly disturbing” and can even threaten Poland’s membership in the European Union.

Voting entirely by post can breach the constitutional principle of the universality of the elections. The campaign being conducted does not respect the principle of equal opportunities for the candidates, while the citizens are not receiving even a minimal amount of knowledge about the elections. Held in this way, they cannot be consistent with international standards.

The former chairperson of the State Electoral Commission (PKW), Professor Andrzej Zoll fiercely criticised the aim of the ruling camp to hold the presidential elections by post. He stated that the PKW should tender its resignation, while the situation today is worse than during the times of the People’s Republic of Poland.

“Once again, the Constitutional Tribunal has attempted to frustrate the implementation of the CJEU judgment of 19 November 2019.”, stated the case directly judge Piotr Pszczółkowski who issued a dissenting opinion.