The scenes coming out of Poland of protesters clashing with police are almost a mirror image of the unrest in France: Unlike in France, most protesters in Poland are right-wing sympathizers who are protesting what they consider an unconstitutional power grab. At issue are a series of judicial reforms introduced by the conservative during its time in power, which current prime minister , of the Civic Coalition, has been fighting to undo. In a conflict with few, if any, good guys, the worst actor, as is so often the case in European politics, is Brussels.
Although communism formally ended in Poland in 1989, many institutions, including the judiciary, retained significant personnel continuity. PiS has long argued that this produced a self-perpetuating professional caste that remains resistant to accountability and is still shaped by habits of the old system, even decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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