"President Andrzej Duda is facing a historic decision," Aleksander Kwaśniewski said in an interview for "Kropka nad i". "Either he will take part in a coup against an independent judiciary branch, or he will show courage, which may cost him reelection, but will go down in history as a good deed," said the former President.
On Thursday, the Sejm passed legislation on the Supreme Court, drafted by the Law and Justice party (PiS). Last week, the parliament also passed amendments to the act on the National Council of the Judiciary and on common courts; these acts only need the President's signature to become law.
"The President should understand the prevailing mood in the country today"
In the evening, demonstrators gathered in front of the Presidential Palace, to make an appeal to Andrzej Duda to veto the bills that will change the judiciary branch.
"The President should understand the prevailing mood in the country today," said Aleksander Kwaśniewski in an interview for "Kropka nad i". He recalled that in his inauguration speech, Andrzej Duda stressed the importance of the community. "The word community occurred in that speech with particular frequency. And he lost this community."
"Perhaps the most painful wound today is the rift within the Polish people," he noted.
"We speak different languages, we are unable to engage the other side in a dialogue. The Sejm is the perfect example of this. And the President, who should be a bridge, the one who seeks a consensus, has retreated," he added, criticising the course as a great mistake.
He appealed to Andrzej Duda to "return to the role of president, or finally to become the President, because it is high time."
"I believe that if the President and his people are watching events on Krakowskie Przedmieście, and remember what they said about the Polish community, then he should not sign this [legislative acts changing the judiciary branch – ed.]," he said. "He should begin a conversation with all those people who are of a different opinion, and should look for a solution that would restore at least a semblance of legal order in Poland," he stressed.
According to Kwaśniewski, the conflict between Andrzej Duda and Jarosław Kaczyński, the chairman of the PiS, is inevitable. "I think it has already been written into the pages of our history. The only question is, when it will come into the open," he assessed.
"The President, if he does not want to muddle through his five-year term of office as an insignificant character, he must put all his bets on the community, and not on serving just one party," he claimed.
According to the former President, Andrzej Duda is facing a historic decision. "Either, as professor [Adam – ed.] Strzembosz put it, he will soil his hands by taking part in a coup against an independent judiciary branch, or he will show courage, which may cost him reelection, but will go down in history as a good deed," he said.
In Kwaśniewski's view, the changes proposed by Duda did not make much difference. "He turned a very bad bill into a slightly less bad one. At this point, knowing that the Minister of Justice got the better of him, as the decisions were made, the time has come for him to show that he understands the role of the president and his duties," he stressed.
Źródło: tvn24.pl/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24