The flag of the European Union and that of Poland tied together, as if holding hands along the procession that has been demonstrating through the streets and squares of Warsaw since this afternoon. “I’m staying in the EU”, shout the Poles gathered in the capital of the country and in 30 other cities against the decision of the Constitutional Court on Thursday which sanctioned the primacy of Polish laws over EU ones. A sentence that goes against one of the founding principles of the EU and has worsened the already delicate relations between Brussels and the ultra-conservative Polish government, and which for many could lead to a “Polexit”, an exit from the Union.
Clash between Poland and the EU, Tajani: “The ruling of the Warsaw Court is wrong and harmful”
by Emanuele Lauria
Among the Spanish nationalists of Vox
The Constitutional Tribunal, with the approval of three of the five judges of the college, thus concluded the examination of the appeal presented by the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, regarding the “wide and reasonable doubts” on the prevalence of Community law over the Polish Constitution. Morawiecki had asked for a review after the European Court of Justice ruled in March that the new Polish regulations for the appointment of Supreme Court judges violated EU law because they undermine the independence and autonomy of judges.
For the Polish Prime Minister “the role of the EU is to support the development of countries, not to impose ideas contrary to their history and identity and legal solutions incompatible with their legal system”. He said this in a video message broadcast during Vox’s national convention of Spanish ultranationalists, adding that “we must protect the differences of national communities, because the strength of our continent depends on these differences”.
But more than the majority of citizens are showing that they disagree with the prime minister, around 80% according to recent polls, and many have taken to the streets to give a clear signal to the sovereign drift that the country is taking. Hundreds of thousands have in fact responded to the opposition’s invitation to demonstrate to the government that they do not want to hear about an exit from Europe, in what has been defined by local authorities as the largest demonstration since the 1989 Revolutions. when the communist regime was overthrown in a few months.
“We want an independent, European, democratic, law-abiding and just Poland. These principles are now crushed by a power devoid of conscience and morality”, said the promoter of the initiative, the former president of the European Council. Donald Tusk. “I appeal to all those who want to defend European Poland and invite them to come to the Castle Square in Warsaw on Sunday at 6pm. Only together can we stop them”, he wrote on Twitter two days ago. The Poles accepted his invitation not only in the capital, mParallel demonstrations took place in Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan and Kalisz and other cities. “There is nowhere more important than defending Poland in Europe,” Tusk said to the tide of people gathered in Warsaw Castle Square.
“Our law prevails over treaties”: Warsaw’s challenge relaunches EU sovereignists
by our correspondent Tonia Mastrobuoni
.