Poland played an important role in Geopolitics due to its location between the east and the west. Poland’s history is marked with hard battles in which eventually made it non-existent on the European map. In 1918, after World War 1 Poland emerged as a young nation with a new constitution. Later, Poland stood strong against the Soviet Union until Nazi Germany invaded the country in September 1939 and destroyed it. In the same month, Soviet invaded Poland dividing it between east and west. Post World War 2, under the Soviet control, Poland became the communist People’s Republic of Poland. Then after three decades, no proper development in Poland lead to a rise in anger later polish union started organising massive protests against the soviet union.
In 1989, the Soviet under pressure agreed that the democratic parties take part in the election. Democrats won the majority later in parliament formed the Republic Of Poland.
Later in 1993, the European Union started to join new European countries through strict membership rules. Poland Joined EU in 2004 and received huge money from the EU which helped in the nation-building. But things started to change very quickly in 2014. The country saw a rise in intolerance and there were racial attacks, destruction of mosques, and attacks against synagogues. Conservative party PiS openly started opposing migrants and their campaign posters read “we won’t allow foreigners”.
Shockingly, PiS won 37% of the vote which helped it to form an active government in the country. PiS believes EU has exploited Poland’s freedom.
As soon PiS came into power it started to take control of Constitutional Tribunal. Freedom of the press was under attack and a bill was passed to increase the powers of intelligence officers. Subsequently, the safety of Journalists became an issue. Ruling party captured the courts in three strategic stages. Firstly, denial of opposition-appointed judges to take their place in court. Secondly, the government passed laws to paralyse the court and prevent its functioning effectively. At last, appointing loyal judges into the court for complete capture of the system.
In 1993, European Commission joined member countries on three strict rules 1) Free Markets 2) Protection of Human Rights 3) Protection of Law and Justice. Poland clearly captured the courts of the country. EU send many warnings to the Polish government to repeal laws and restore the independence of the constitutional tribunal. But the Polish government refused to budge. The EU decided to initiate the sanctions procedure under Article 7 of the European treaties. But East and Central European countries did not favour the sanctions, leading EU into crisis. With the Brexit in coming March and rise in support to Viktor Orban inside EU, there were Anti-EU slogans all over Europe. EU need to fight the battle very hard.