Poland’s Judicial Crisis Deepens Amid Political Battles over Constitutional Courts

There is no sign yet of any resolution to Poland’s increasingly febrile judicial crisis, which (an obvious speculation) may have inspired a gunman to murder six people and injure even more in a mass shooting in Kraków yesterday. The alleged killer has been arrested. Marcin Kierwiński, the Polish interior minister, has said that “everything indicates that the shooter was fascinated by far-right ideology.” Others have disputed that claim. Time will tell. But no one should deny the heroism of the two policemen (say their names), Jakub Kulik and Artur Morański, both seriously injured in the shoot-out that brought the terrorist’s rampage to an end.

In a piece published here before the attack, John Gustavsson looked at the background to the Polish crisis, which must, in my view, be understood as a reflection of a wider fracture in the country’s politics. Gustavsson rightly stressed the role that Brussels has been playing. Meanwhile, I am trying to work my way through an abbreviated (really) description of the legal and constitutional morass that has been building up for over a decade.

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Andrew Stuttaford

Andrew Stuttaford is the editor of National Review's Capital Matters.

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There is no sign yet of any resolution to Poland’s increasingly febrile judicial crisis, which (an obvious speculation) may have inspired a gunman to murder six people and injure even more in a mass shooting in Kraków yesterday. The alleged killer has been arrested. Marcin Kierwiński, the Polish interior minister, has said that “everything indicates that the shooter was fascinated by far-right ideology.” Others have disputed that claim. Time will tell. But no one should deny the heroism of the two policemen (say their names), Jakub Kulik and Artur Morański, both seriously injured in the shoot-out that brought the terrorist’s rampage to an end.

In a piece published here before the attack, John Gustavsson looked at the background to the Polish crisis, which must, in my view, be understood as a reflection of a wider fracture in the country’s politics. Gustavsson rightly stressed the role that Brussels has been playing. Meanwhile, I am trying to work my way through an abbreviated (really) description of the legal and constitutional morass that has been building up for over a decade.