Poland’s disputed top judge showed up at work on Wednesday in defiance of a controversial retirement law that the EU has criticised as a threat to the country’s judicial independence.
Chanting “Free courts!”, “Constitution!” and “Irremovable!” several thousand supporters greeted Supreme Court chief justice Malgorzata Gersdorf as she made her way into the Supreme Court building in central Warsaw.
Gersdorf, 65, has refused to comply with the law change, pushed through by the right-wing government, and insisted she can serve a full six-year term despite being told to step down at midnight on Tuesday.
She has branded the court changes — which has put Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) government at loggerheads with Brussels — a “purge”.
“I’m not engaging in politics. I’m doing this to defend the rule of law and to testify the truth about the line between the constitution and the violation of the constitution,” Gersdorf told journalists and supporters outside the court.
“I hope that legal order will return to Poland,” she said.
Poland’s anti-communist freedom icon Lech Walesa arrived from Gdansk, northern Poland, to join protesters at the Supreme Court on Wednesday evening.
Walesa, who negotiated a peaceful end to communism in Poland in 1989, told protesters that the current government was “violating the constitution.”
“If these protest continue, I will come to join you now and then,” he said.
Twenty-seven of the court’s 73 judges are affected by the new law, which lowers the retirement age from 70 to 65. Justices can ask the president to prolong their terms, but he can accept or deny their requests without giving a reason.
Sixteen judges have made requests, according to Polish media reports.
