International News

WARSAW, July 19, (APP/AFP) – Polish lawmakers
suspended their debate on a controversial reform to the Supreme Court until Wednesday, after the leader of the governing party unleashed a diatribe against the opposition.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the governing Law and Justice (PiS)
party, was incensed by the mention of his late twin brother in arguments against the judicial reform under consideration.
“Don’t wipe your treacherous mouths with my late brother’s name. You
destroyed him, you murdered him, you are scoundrels,” Kaczynski said.
His brother Lech Kaczynski, who was president of Poland at the time
of his death, was killed along with 95 other people when their presidential jet crashed in Russia in 2010.
The PiS suspects the crash involved foul play, though Polish and
Russian investigators found that pilot error, bad weather and poor air-traffic control were to blame.
The atmosphere in the lower house of parliament took a turn for the
worse after the PiS leader’s outburst, leading the deputy speaker to adjourn the debate until Wednesday morning.
The reform of the Supreme Court, which supervises lower courts, is
expected to pass as both houses of parliament are controlled by the PiS.
The bill is the latest of a slew of judicial changes introduced by
the governing conservatives that the liberal opposition, some members of the legal profession and critics abroad see as a threat to the separation of powers.
The opposition criticised the tabling of the bill — which would
subjugate the Supreme Court to executive power — as “the announcement of a coup”, while the European Commission said it would discuss the situation on Wednesday.