Hypocrisy Is the European Commission’s True Fundamental Value

In theory, the vaunted Rule of Law defended by the European Commission is one of the fundamental values of the EU, one that guarantees democracy and the rights and freedoms of citizens. However, this fundamental value is a dead letter in the face of the actions of progressive and left-wing governments and an iron fist against conservative and right-wing ones. The European Commission, instead of exercising a role of guardian of the Treaties, is increasingly monopolizing power to undermine the sovereignty of the member states, something that contradicts its own functions and which, for many, is a clear sign of its intention to turn the European Union into a sort of superstate. 

To this end, and applying truly scandalous double standards, the European Commission has not hesitated to use financial and political blackmail. Examples abound: in Slovenia, the government of the conservative Janez Janša was accused of failing to comply with the rule of law, but when the government passed to the liberal left of Robert Golob, the harassment of conservative politicians and media did not raise any concerns in Brussels. In Spain, the government of Pedro Sánchez, beset by corruption and seeking to do away with judicial independence, is allowed to do almost anything. On the contrary, countries such as Hungary and the conservative former government of Poland have been attacked and blackmailed using European funds with unusual ferocity.

The director of the Hungarian-Polish Freedom Institute and former deputy justice minister in the previous Law and Justice government, Marcin Romanowski, has published a comprehensive analysis of the Polish part of the European Commission’s ‘Rule of Law’ report. Romanowski is a member of the Sejm, the Polish parliament, but has been forced to go into exile in Hungary because of charges brought against him by the public prosecutor’s office.

“My analysis is not a mere rebuttal of the Commission’s scandalous report on Poland, which amounts to an endorsement of post-December 13, 2023 globalist anarchy and an appalling paean to liberal autocracy, which has called itself ‘militant democracy.’ It is a documentation of the ongoing dismantling of democracy and the rule of law under the left-liberal coalition led by [Prime Minister Donald] Tusk,” says Romanowski, noting that this would not have been possible without the backing of Brussels, which has waged “a hybrid legal war against Poland’s conservative government and now serves as guarantor of the blatant illegalities perpetrated by Tusk’s left-liberal administration.” Illegalities that, in addition to going against the Polish Constitution, shatter the foundations of the rule of law that the Commission claims to defend.

Romanowski’s analysis points out these illegalities, one by one, starting with the illegal and forced takeover of the prosecutor’s office: 

Citing three private legal opinions, the Minister of Justice stated that the independent national prosecutor had never been legally appointed, despite a previous legitimate appointment. He was then physically barred from entering the prosecutor’s office. Shortly thereafter, the prime minister, without the statutory involvement of the president, installed a loyal political ally in office.

The consequences of this political control of the prosecutor’s office are evident in the investigations against opposition deputies, with more than seventy open cases, and the archiving of the cases of Tusk’s political allies. One of the most scandalous ‘closed’ cases was that of Roman Giertych, a confidant of Tusk’s who was accused by the prosecution of siphoning off more than €20 million from a listed company. “The decision to close the case was concealed for months, which is not surprising, given that it was based on the absurd claim that Giertych knew nothing about the multimillion-dollar transactions carried out by his … chauffeur and bodyguard, in a company for which he was the lead attorney.” 

Despite such actions, the European Commission speaks of “significant progress” in ensuring prosecutorial independence. These developments, Romanowski says, have turned the prosecutor’s office into 

a political weapon against the opposition, with trumped-up charges and psychological torture during detention to extract false testimonies. The European Court of Human Rights has already taken up multiple cases. My own illegal detention, in flagrant violation of international law, has resulted in Hungary granting me political asylum and Interpol denying a red notice (a request to law enforcement agencies around the world to locate and arrest a person), which puts Poland in the same category as Belarus, Russia or other authoritarian regimes.

Continuing with the judiciary, the Tusk government has also ignored the National Council of Magistracy, which is the constitutional body charged with safeguarding judicial independence, to shorten “the mandates of hundreds of court presidents and vice presidents, replacing them with party loyalists. In addition, it ignored a Constitutional Court ruling that such actions, by excluding the National Council of the Magistracy, are unconstitutional.” As a result, more than a thousand judicial vacancies remain unfilled, and the ministry refuses to announce new appointments “in an effort to prevent any nominations outside of left-liberal control.”

The Commission’s report also mentions “only in passing that Poland’s National Election Commission rejected a party’s financial report, resulting in the loss of public funding, without mentioning that the party in question is Law and Justice (PiS) … The Supreme Court declared this action illegal and ordered that funding be restored in accordance with the Electoral Code. However, Prime Minister Tusk stated on X that, ‘in his opinion,’ the money would not be paid, and the Minister of Finance did the same, ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

This blocking of PiS’s public funding has had its effect on the last presidential elections, but, as Romanowski points out, “once again, the Polish people rose to the occasion. Tens of thousands of small donations financed Karol Nawrocki’s campaign, which triumphed against all odds, including a state apparatus, a media complex, and a left-liberal establishment lined up in full assault mode.”

What about the media? In an interview in January last year, former TVP World director Filip Styczyński, whose offices were taken over by the police, pointed out the hypocrisy of the European Commission spokesman when asked about this issue: “We do not comment on specific events in EU countries.” 

It seems that the Commission has not changed its mind because, as Romanowski states, 

all over the world, globalists are at war with freedom of expression and Poland is no exception … Independent journalists are facing increasing persecution and threats, some made directly by the spokesman of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the new Minister of Justice. Advertisers are blackmailed into boycotting conservative media, while reporters from the conservative TV Republika, Poland’s most watched channel, are banned from attending government press conferences. Officials openly threaten to revoke their licenses. The Commission’s report? Praises ‘reform’ of public media.

Also omitted was the unprecedented attack on the National Broadcasting Council, a constitutional body charged with safeguarding freedom of expression and media pluralism. The Council’s president courageously defended freedom of expression and granted licenses to conservative broadcasters. In retaliation, deputies of the ruling coalition initiated impeachment proceedings to force a suspension and paralyze the institution. The Constitutional Court, in a final ruling, ruled that the initiation of impeachment proceedings requires a qualified majority of three-fifths, but, ignoring the ruling, the Sejm suspended the president by a simple majority, simultaneously violating two constitutional guarantees: those of the Council and those of the Constitutional Court. 

The granting of broadcasting licenses has been one of the means employed by the Tusk government to crack down on conservative media, as in the case of the wPolsce24 channel a few months ago.

What would have happened if a right-wing government had done the same as Tusk? Romanowski is very clear: “If a PiS government had committed even 1% of the transgressions now being carried out by Tusk’s coalition, Brussels would be in an uproar and headlines around the world would be screaming about the death of democracy in Poland. What we are witnessing is an extraordinarily crude political operation that, despite all efforts, cannot be disguised in the garb of neutrality or objectivity.” 

For Brussels, undermining the foundations of democracy is acceptable as long as it serves its progressive agenda.

Fortunately, the Polish people gave victory to Karol Nawrocki in the presidential election, which has meant a severe setback for Tusk’s plans, who sees doubts growing within his governing coalition. “The President has the constitutional power to veto legislation, which can only be overridden by a three-fifths majority in the Sejm, a threshold Tusk falls short of. According to the Constitution, without the consent of a president elected by direct popular vote, a government cannot effectively govern; it can only administer.” 

For Tusk, therefore, the only option is to continue with constitutional rupture, for which he has the unconditional support of the European Commission. The rhetoric of “the rule of law has become a euphemism for ideological warfare against conservative governments that challenge the globalist Project,” Romanowski said.