Poland: Duda Signs Bill Empowering Justice Minister To Hire, Fire Court Heads

The bill gives Justice Minister power to hire and fire heads of courts of general jurisdiction in the country.

“The president has signed the July 12 bill,” Deputy head of the presidential chancellery was quoted as saying on the presidential website.

Opposition protesters had on Monday demanded Duda not sign the bill, after he vetoed two of three judicial reform bills passed by the Parliament.

The bill allows the justice minister to hire and fire the senior judges who head ordinary courts.

PiS say it is a measure needed to make the judiciary more accountable to the people and make a creaking system more efficient but critics say it will compromise the independence of judges.

The conservative, Eurosceptic said PiS’s plans to reform the judiciary had brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets in cities across Poland and raised concerns in the European Union and Washington.

Opposition parties welcome Duda’s veto of two of the bills but urged him also to block the third.