JURISTOCRACY IN ACTION: THE WEAPONIZATION OF JUSTICE UNDER POLAND’S “MILITANT DEMOCRACY”

The illegal assumption of political control—first over the prosecution service and subsequently over the courts in 2024—served to restore and secure, for the future, the full power of the left-liberal establishment. In the short term, the judiciary became an instrument for suppressing the conservative opposition and for shielding Tusk’s close associates who had been charged with serious corruption and financial crimes. Control over the justice system also ensures impunity for hundreds of individuals from the left-liberal establishment who, after December 13, 2023, engaged in a series of unlawful acts under the formula of a “militant democracy” directed by Prime Minister Tusk. These acts include, in particular, the unlawful and forcible takeover of public media, the prosecution service, and the courts; the open disregard of rulings or decisions of constitutional bodies such as the Constitutional Court, the President of the Republic, the Supreme Court, the National Council of the Judiciary, or the National Broadcasting Council; politically motivated investigations involving psychological torture and unlawful deprivation of liberty; and countless acts of official misconduct. The stakes are high. The number of individuals facing potential charges carrying long prison terms, and in extreme cases life imprisonment, includes virtually the entire left-liberal governing elite: ministers, MPs and senators of the ruling coalition, hundreds of judicial and prosecutorial functionaries, numerous high-ranking officials, civil servants, and members of the legal profession. At the same time, it is a unique opportunity to cleanse the state of liberal networks of pathological social, business, and political connections—often deeply rooted in post-communist structures. Moreover, the bureaucratic and formal character of the alleged crimes—committed in full public view—renders the evidentiary process almost effortless. This thesis might seem exaggerated or even absurd, yet to grasp its validity one only needs to calmly read the extensive notice submitted in January 2025 by the President of the Constitutional Court, reporting the commission of a constitutional coup d’état and multiple offenses of abuse of authority. The charges are so grave and well-documented that Tusk’s associates have, to this day, been unable to secure the discontinuation of the ongoing criminal investigation. In the long term, the capture of the judiciary and its removal from democratic oversight and from the genuine system of separation and balance of powers is intended to cement the network of influence—so that even if Poles were to choose differently in democratic elections, courts controlled by globalist circles could block such decisions under the pretext of defending the rule of law and human rights, reinterpreted in an Orwellian spirit. In reality, this would be a return to the past—for that was the actual institutional and legal shape of the Polish judiciary, negotiated with the communists in 1989 by the liberal wing of the opposition in such a way as to guarantee impunity and lasting influence for the post-communist elites. The liberal–post-communist juristocracy remained largely unchanged until 2017, when the Law and Justice government attempted to reform it. As a result of fierce resistance and a lack of determination on the conservative side, only partial measures were adopted, which failed to sufficiently cleanse the judiciary—and what we are now witnessing is the resurgence of the old order.