Law and Justice

He has certainly made the headlines recently. In late March he gave an interview to the far-right weekly Sieci, in which he openly accused the prime minister, his nominal boss, of implementing policies more in tune with the opposition. Mateusz Morawiecki, he said, "is a skilled politician who knows how to convince the PiS leadership to run a policy contradictory to the 2014 agenda".

About 60 demonstrators, mostly Poles living in the Czech Republic, joined a protest against an abortion ban law and to support women's rights in Poland, in Prague, Czech Republic, 18 January 2018. EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK

Ziobro argued that the measures to allow the EU to generate "own resources" for the plan (ie. issue debt) would lead to a further - unacceptable, in his view - erosion of national sovereignty. Also, as the architect of the PiS's controversial justice reforms, he did not like the rule-of-law conditionality that the European Commission has attached to the disbursement of funds from the RRF.

These cases and others where freedom of speech is being challenged by Poland's harsh criminal code sometimes make the international news.

Poland's independent human rights commissioner will be forced to leave office following a ruling on Thursday by the government-controlled Constitutional Tribunal that it is unconstitutional for him to remain in his post after his term of office has expired.

In April 2019, the administration of the surrounding province, also named Lublin, approved a similar declaration. The city of Lublin is the capital of the province, and like every good capital, it holds itself apart from the region it represents.

Protesters attend a 'Free Media' demonstration in front of the Polish Television TVP building at the Warsaw Insurgents Square in Warsaw, Poland, 09 January 2016. EPA/LESZEK SZYMANSKI

People take part in Equality March in support of LGBT rights in Wroclaw, Poland, 03 October 2020. EPA-EFE/Maciej Kulczynski

Poland's Supreme Court Judge Malgorzata Manowska speaks during the sixth day of the sitting of the Supreme Court judges in Warsaw, Poland, 23 May 2020. EPA-EFE/TOMASZ GZELL

The one-day break in broadcasting, black front pages of newspapers and black home pages of news portals were meant to warn everyone of how the media would look once the nationalist-populist government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party completes its mission to kill off the independent media.