The EconomistJuly 22nd 2017 Europe 412 eventually. He certainly remains ambi-
tious abroad: his affable talk with Mr
Trump of Franco-American military co-op-
eration in the Middle East reflected his goal
that France should be Europe’s leading mil-
itary power. He has also made clear that
France will preserve its “full spectrum” of
armed services, meaning it can deploy
submarines, fighter aircraft and nuclear
weapons, and can intervene with soldiers
at a distance.
Potentially, the army’s large domestic
role could be trimmed. Operation Senti-
nelle, in force since the terrorist attacks in
Paris in 2015, requires as many as 10,000
soldiers to be deployed to patrol city
streets and guard schools. The mission,
part of a state of emergency, was supposed
to be temporary. Instead it has dragged on,
and become the French army’sbiggest op-
eration anywhere in the world. Last year
General de Villiers said the army was oper-
ating “at its limit” because of it.
Mr Macron’s government has promised
to end the state of emergency, once parlia-
ment agrees to a permanent law to
strengthen domestic security. In theory,
stronger police forces could take over some
tasks from the armed forces. The incoming
chief of the armed services, General Fran-
çois Lecointre, will have to get to grips with
that—after he completes his first job: reach-
ing an understanding with France’s prickly
young president. 7C
HOPIN played in the background and,
as night fell, the crowd on the square
in front of the Supreme Court in Warsaw
sang the Polish national anthem. Someone
projected “This is our court” onto the
building’s wall. Two weeks earlier, in the
same square, Donald Trump had hailed
Poland’s role in the defence of Western val-
ues. But for the demonstrators who turned
out on July 16th to protest against changes
to the judicial system by the governing
Law and Justice (PiS) party, it was those
very values that were under threat.
Since taking power in 2015, PiShas set
about dismantling the country’s checks
and balances. It hasreduced the public
broadcaster to a propaganda organ, packed
the civil service with loyalists and purged
much of the army’s leadership. It has un-
dermined the independence of the judicia-
ry by stacking the Constitutional Tribunal
with its cronies. In response, the European
Commission warned Poland’s govern-
ment last year that such changes pose “a
systemic risk to the rule of law”.
On July 12th PiSstepped up its effort to
subjugate the legal system to politicians’
control with two new laws. Members of
the National Judicial Council, the body
that chooses judges, will henceforth be se-
lected by parliament instead of by other
judges. The minister of justice can now ap-
point and dismiss the heads of lower
courts. A third bill, if signed into law,
would allow the minister to sack every
member of the Supreme Court. Among
other responsibilities, thatcourt rules on
the validity of elections. Unexpectedly,
Andrzej Duda, Poland’s president, threat-
ened to veto the bill, but with a fewamendments it is now likely to pass.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, PiS’s boss and the
country’s de facto leader, accuses Poland’s
courts of being “subordinated to foreign
forces” and beset by a “collapse of moral
principles”. He also calls them a “strong-
hold of post-communists”, referring to
PiS’s claim that Polish liberals have secret
ties to the former communist regime. The
reforms, he said, were needed to speed up
proceedings and restore public confidence.
In fact, Polish courts are not especially
slow. Critics believe PiSsimply wants to
stuff them with judges who will rubber-
stamp its policies. From now on, judges
will owe their careers to the governing
party. “It’s shockingly brazen,” says Kim
Lane Scheppele, a sociologist at PrincetonUniversity who has analysed similar
changes in Hungary.
Polls show that 76% of Poles oppose a
politicised judiciary, as the protests in War-
saw and other cities attested. The front
page ofDziennik Gazeta Prawna, a daily,
pictured Mr Kaczynski and two shadows;
the title read: “The three branches of gov-
ernment”. Outside parliamentlast week-
end, one man brandished a handmade
placard quoting Montesquieu. Another
carried a copy of the constitution. “It has
no meaning now,” said his wife. State tele-
vision, meanwhile, described the protests
as a “coup”. In a rant in parliament on July
18th, Mr Kaczynski even accused the oppo-
sition of murdering his brother, who died
in a plane crash in 2010.
The European Commission dutifully
expressed concern over the new laws.
There is some talk of imposing sanctions
on Poland. But Mr Kaczynski has drawn
lessons from Hungary, where Viktor Or-
ban, the autocratic prime minister, has re-
written the constitution and tightened the
screws on civil society with little trouble
from the European Union. “Kaczynski has
learned from Orban that if you change
facts on the ground, the commission can’t
get its head around it in time,” says Ms
Scheppele. The EUhas launched infringe-
ment procedures against Hungary, but the
most serious sanctions, contained in Arti-
cle 7 of the EUtreaty, require a unanimous
vote in the European Council. Poland
would probably veto any effort to invoke
them against Hungary, and vice versa.
Yet unlike Hungary, where Mr Orban’s
party enjoys a crushing majority, Poland is
politically divided. PiSwon just 37.5% of
the vote in 2015. Civil society remains
strong, and the government responds to
public pressure: last year it backed down
from a strict abortion law when faced with
massive protests. The independence of Po-
land’s judiciary may depend on how
strongly Poles want to keep it. 7Populism in PolandDependant judiciary
WARSAW
Defying the EU, the Law and Justice party puts the courts under political controlThe opposition tests its candle power