Polish President to Veto Bills under Which the Ruling Party Controls the Supreme Court
Local Editor
The President of Poland said he will veto two contentious bills that are widely seen as assaults on the independence of the judicial system.
The planned legal overhaul by the ruling party has sparked days of nationwide protests.
Andrzej Duda said he would veto two of three bills recently passed by politicians.
One would have put the Supreme Court under the political control of the ruling party, giving the justice minister - who is also prosecutor general - power to appoint judges.
The president said a prosecutor general should not have such powers.
"I have decided that I will send back to Sejm [lower house of parliament], which means I will veto the bill, on the Supreme Court, as well as the one about the National Council of the Judiciary," Duda said.
"What we had was not a reform, but appropriation of the courts," said Katarzyna Lubnauer, head of the parliamentary caucus of the opposition party Nowoczesna.
Polish currency zloty immediately rose against the euro, as investors saw the decision as lowering the political risk in Poland.
Observers say Duda's decision puts him at odds with the de facto leader of the country, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is the leader of the ruling Law and Justice [PiS] party but has no formal government post.
Since being elected in 2015, the party has tightened its control over courts and prosecutors, as well as state media, and introduced restrictions on public gatherings.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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