The Party of European Socialists condemns the latest attempt by the Polish government to control the nomination of judges of the Supreme Court, which in practice ends the democratic separation of power.

The Supreme Court is the court of last resort in Poland and is responsible for the validation of election results.

PES president Sergei Stanishev said:

"This plan is devious and cynical. It has been carefully hidden from public scrutiny and it aims at securing total government control over the judiciary. When added to the previous attacks on judicial independence by the hard-right Polish government, this new measure will have potentially disastrous results if elections were to be invalidated on political grounds.

"The government of Poland wants to rule the country with no opposition and avoiding all accountability. We support the vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, in his effort to step up the pressure on the Polish government."

For more information, please contact Toby Wardman
toby.wardman@pes.eu, +32 491 86 97 48