(CN) — It's being called a “democratic coup.”
Since returning as Poland's prime minister in December, Donald Tusk has lived up to his promise to use an “iron broom,” as he put it this past May on the campaign trail, to sweep away what critics say were eight years of dangerously authoritarian hard-right nationalist rule by the Law and Justice party.
Barely a month in office, Tusk is overseeing a drastic — though in some aspects constitutionally dubious — government purge in a bid to undo the work of Law and Justice, better known by its Polish initials PiS.
It's not easy for Tusk to unpick eight years of PiS rule. That's because standing in his way are Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally who wields veto powers, and a slew of officials and judges who got into office during the reign of Law and Justice. Duda's term ends in the summer of 2025 and Tusk's ruling coalition lacks the votes to overturn the president's veto power.
Undeterred, Tusk is opting to find methods to get around Duda's veto and he's refused to recognize as legitimate judicial reforms instituted by PiS, a stance in line with European Union officials and courts.
Under its contested reforms, Law and Justice set up new judicial chambers and brought in numerous new judges and prosecutors. Critics decried the changes as a bid to concentrate power and weaken the judiciary's independence.
The judicial overhaul turned into a long-running rule-of-law dispute between PiS and the EU. The bloc's highest court declared the reforms illegal, but Poland's Constitutional Tribunal, which is in the hands of PiS judges, disagreed.
The clash got so brutal that the EU blocked billions of dollars in funds slated for Poland, saying they will only be released once Warsaw rolls back its reforms. Tusk is seeking to obtain those funds by undoing the judicial changes, but PiS-appointed judges and Duda are blocking those efforts.
Tusk's purge has been sharp and broad.
Shortly before Christmas, Poland's three major state media outlets were overhauled: A slew of managers, supervisors and journalists hired during Law and Justice's time in government were sacked and the live feed of TVP Info, a state broadcaster, was cut off. Tusk accused Law and Justice of turning state media into propaganda organs.
But the move was questioned as potentially illegal not only by PiS members but also by legal experts because Tusk bypassed the national media council, a body responsible for appointing and firing the management of state-owned media. But Tusk saw that body as an obstacle because it was run by PiS appointees.
Other PiS loyalists have also been shown the door, including Janusz Janowski, the director of the national gallery whose appointment was criticized by the Polish art world as another effort by the PiS to stamp its conservative views on society. In firing Janowski, Tusk's culture minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz also scrapped Janowski's selection for Poland's official entry to the Venice Biennale — nationalistic works of art by Ignacy Czwartos.
This month, Tusk set in motion efforts to roll back the Law and Justice's judicial reforms.
In a move that angered Duda, Tusk’s Justice Minister and Chief Prosecutor Adam Bodnar replaced Dariusz Barski, the head of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, without getting Duda’s approval.
The president called the sacking unlawful, saying it needed his approval. But Tusk retorted that Barski was improperly appointed in 2022.
Then, the Constitutional Tribunal issued a decree on Monday suspending the nomination of Barski’s replacement.
One of the court's judges, Krystyna Pawłowicz, took to social media on Sunday and spoke out against Tusk's government, likening its actions to Poland's past communist rulers.
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