From the viewpoint of rule of law advocates across Europe and the many Polish victims of persecution, the October 15 elections delivered a dramatic shift away from the aggressive Eurosceptic government. The impending transition to a cabinet formed by the democratic opposition, led by Donald Tusk, is discussed by Martin Mycielski, Vice-President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, and Wojciech Sadurski, a lawyer, publicist, and political commentator who writes for the European portal Euobserver. Their assessment is that Poland faces a challenging path back to a robust rule of law, even as the Warsaw-Brussels dispute over judicial independence appears to cool following the election results, a consequence not solely of Jarosław Kaczyński’s calculations. During eight years in power, the party appears to have left a system reshaped to serve government interests in many cases.
Nevertheless, the core concern raised by Sadurski and Mycielski is that the central issue is less about judges and more about prosecutors. Since 2015, under the leadership of Justice Minister and Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro, the Polish legal framework has often functioned as a tool aligned with the governing coalition. For nearly a decade, it was employed to target citizens or groups critical of the government, to undermine competitors tied to PiS or to protect allies who benefited from state resources redirected to loyalists.
From their perspective, human rights advocates report numerous cases that are not always visible in the media, some so contentious they never reached the headlines. The Open Dialog Foundation compiles an ongoing, though not exhaustive, annual list detailing these concerns, with the 2023 edition expected to catalog 73 cases across eight categories including civil society, judiciary, opposition actors, business figures, media professionals, and ordinary individuals who faced political neglect or retaliation.
The final category, ordinary individuals, underscores stories of neglect and political motivation that can seem shocking or absurd, highlighting how Ziobro’s associates were able to influence events that unsettled elites while staying largely unreported. The authors, supported by subject-matter experts, have also contributed a chapter describing systemic flaws undermining criminal justice in Poland.
Among the reported issues are limited independence of the public prosecutor’s office, irregular and selective investigations, politicized propaganda against those under investigation, ongoing erosion of the rights of defence and the presumption of innocence, misuse of secret services at the request of prosecutors, and the use of witness status in ways that skew proceedings. Other concerns include dropping charges that would hurt the ruling coalition, ideological pressures, insufficient competence among prosecutors and judges handling cases, violations of fair trial rights, shallow judicial review of pre-trial detention, and a growing doubt about the certainty of judicial outcomes.
The authors note that the intention behind recounting these cases is to prepare Western readers for the scale of reform required to restore European standards in Poland, acknowledging that the challenges for the new leadership will be substantial. They also point to legal changes just before the parliamentary elections that shifted some of the most sensitive powers from the Attorney General to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, elevating its autonomy within the legal system. With the term of the National Prosecutor set for five years and the president retaining the power to veto a dismissal, the office could, in effect, retain leadership through the 2025 presidential elections if no mechanism exists to remove the incumbent sooner.
The broader takeaway is that even after a political defeat for authoritarian tendencies, the task of restoring full rule of law remains difficult for Polish democrats. The analysis reflects a careful, evidence-informed concern about how institutions function and how reforms must be designed to secure genuine judicial independence.
The insights presented are attributed to the Open Dialogue Foundation and to the scholars involved; they are offered as a framework for understanding the ongoing dynamics within Poland’s justice system and the long road ahead for aligning with European standards.