As of recent, nationalist media has become more and more popular with some sectors of Poland, causing the population to slowly ideologically split between far-right nationalist politics and more liberal politics, coming to a head earlier this year with the effective outlawing of abortion. The Polish political system consists of three branches, with similar institutions to American politics. Their parliament, functioning as their legislative branch, has an upper and lower house.
The upper house, the Senate, has members, and the lower house, the Sejm, has members. The Polish president is democratically elected, and serves a similar role to the president of the United States in that they act as the head of the military, can veto legislation from parliament, and function as the country's figurehead. The president elects a prime minister, who elects the rest of the members of the Council of Ministers, and these members head other governmental institutions.
The judiciary branch consists of smaller local courts, the Supreme Court, and the Constitutional Tribunal, which is the country's highest court. The Constitutional Tribunal has 15 judges appointed by the Sejm for 9-year terms, and they can take initiative when reviewing legislation, which means that their version of judicial review does not have to be initiated with a pre-existing case.
On October 22nd of , the Constitutional Tribunal ruled most forms of abortion illegal, causing protests in Poland's streets. This legislation had been a major talking point in more conservative political circles since around , when 5 new judges were elected to the Constitutional Tribunal, with steady legislation limiting the right to abort a child culminating in this most recent ruling.
This caused massive protests among women, who often had to travel out of Poland to recieve abortions before the change, and will have to continue to do so for the forseeable future. British Broadcasting Corporation. Poland abortion: Top court bans almost all terminations. Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook: Poland. For example, five judges were newly appointed although the previous parliament had effectively appointed three new judges. Another case is that the President refused to receive the oath from these three judges even though the Constitutional Tribunal clearly had stated that it was his constitutional duty.
This creates a dangerous precedent. At the same time, it must be noticed that in relation to the Constitutional Tribunal the previous ruling party also acted on the fringes of law by changing the law and forcing the appointment of five judges just before the end of its term of office. Can you cluster proponents and opponents into social groups or draw any other lines?
For example something like: socially disadvantaged people are in favour of the Government, well-educated people are against the party in power and its current politics? I think this would be a wrong generalisation and it would repeat stereotypes. There is also no clear division between the Western and Eastern part of Poland as it used to be in the past. Usually the Eastern part voted more traditionally and hence was more likely to support PiS. However, in the last elections the governing party won the majority of electoral districts also in the Western part of Poland.
Overall, the social circumstances in Poland are much more diverse than broadcasted abroad. These marches took place on 19 December and at the beginning of the new year.
In your view, how strong is KOD? I think that KOD works very efficiently, especially when bearing in mind that it did not start as a formal organization but as a bottom-up-initiative.
It managed to bring together people of different environments and different views, who are all dissatisfied and disappointed with the actions of the ruling party. PiS and its supporters seem to diminish the real power of those who support KOD by claiming they have been manipulated. For sure, the escalation of this conflict does not make any good for Poland especially as the used language often is compromising and even offensive.
What is your opinion of this decision? I think it is a tricky one. I am curious to observe if the European Commission will take any further steps — I hope it will not do this. After all, is there anything worthwhile mentioning we do not hear from the international media? The situation in Poland is much more complex than portrayed by the foreign media. Beyond the issues with the Constitutional Tribunal and the media law, there are many more governmental decisions that are controversial.
The election rules provide for a system of proportionate election to the Sejm and a system of majority election to the Senate. The executive power is vested in the Council of Ministers and the President.
The internal and foreign policy of the state is carried out by the Government, i. The Council of Ministers coordinates and controls the activities of the government administration. The President of the Council of Ministers supervises the local self-government and is the superior for employees of the government administration. Elected in a general election for a term of office of 5 years, the President of the Republic of Poland is the superior representative of the Republic of Poland, supervises compliance with the Constitution and is the supreme Commander of the Polish Armed Forces.
The judicial power is vested in independent courts and tribunals, headed by the Supreme Court and the independent Tribunal of State and the Constitutional Tribunal.
The Supreme Court supervises the activities of common and military courts and is the supreme instance of appeal against rulings which are issued by courts of lower instances. The Supreme Administrative Court and other administrative courts supervise the activities of the public administration. The Constitutional Tribunal adjudicates on whether statutes and international agreements, objectives and activities of political parties comply with the Constitution, and decides on competence-related disputes between central constitutional bodies of the state.
The Tribunal of State decides on the constitutional responsibility of top-ranking state officials, including the President of the Republic of Poland, the President of the Council of Ministers and the Members of the Council of Ministers. Guarantees for civic rights are enshrined in the law, with the Constitution being the most important act. The Constitution also provides citizens of national and ethnic minorities with the freedom to maintain and develop their own language, pursue their customs and traditions, as well as to develop their own culture.
Communes and districts are cells of local self-government, with the commune being the smallest administrative unit in Poland.
0コメント