Icon: enlarge
PiS boss Kaczynski: The EU is talking, Poland's government is creating facts
Photo: WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP
It seems clear that Poland's national-conservative government is no longer afraid of controversial images.
Last week, the Poznan public prosecutor had the lawyer Roman Giertych arrested and handcuffed - to the public when he left a court.
Masked investigators then searched his villa in Warsaw.
Giertych suffered a faint attack and ended up in the hospital, photos showed him being transported in the ambulance.
A public prosecutor chased him to his bed and presented her allegations - even though Giertych was unconscious, as newspapers quote from a protocol.
What makes the case explosive: Giertych is one of the most prominent critics of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the ruling PiS party and the actual ruler of Poland.
The two were still in a coalition from 2006 to 2007, when Giertych headed the "League of Polish Families" party.
But the alliance broke - and now, so many commentators see it, Kaczynski is abusing state power to neutralize Giertych.
The signal to all his opponents: Anyone who picks up must expect public humiliation and indictment.
Icon: enlarge
Lawyer Giertych before the transport to the hospital: an arrest reminiscent of dictatorial show justice
Photo: WOJCIECH OLKUSNIK / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
The case is not only making waves in Poland, it was also carefully registered in Brussels.
There, the federal government is currently negotiating for the other EU states with parliament about the next seven-year budget of the EU and the Corona reconstruction package.
It's about the record sum of 1.8 trillion euros - and about a new mechanism that will make it possible for the first time to cut EU funds for constitutional offenders.
And he's targeting Hungary, and especially Poland.
Poland ignores the highest court order
The Polish government doesn't seem to mind - on the contrary.
It almost seems as if the PiS government wants to irritate the EU further.
There are signs that the PiS could suffer a defeat in the Giertych case.
A Poznan judge has already rejected the applications for arrest against other business people arrested with Giertych, stating that the evidence is too weak.
But the arrest - reminiscent of dictatorial show justice - is by no means the only act that shows how little is left of Poland's rule of law.
Also last week, a disciplinary body lifted a judge's immunity for the first time.
She had spoken out publicly against the controversial PiS judicial reform.
More judgments of this kind are threatened soon, because the PiS has given the disciplinary body extensive rights.
In April, the European Court of Justice ordered the disciplinary body to suspend its activities until it was clarified whether it was independent.
But the chamber just keeps working.
From the point of view of lawyers, the fact that an EU country disregards a dictum of the ECJ is not just a highly dangerous process that could shake the legal system of the EU.
The fact that Poland is doing this now of all times shows how little the government from Brussels fears.
"They think the EU cannot do anything for them," says Green MEP Daniel Freund.
"And you may be right about that."
Blackmail with the coronavirus
In fact, Poland and Hungary seem to have a long lever in their hands: they can torpedo the EU budget with their veto.
Before the corona crisis, that sounded like an empty threat, because Poland and Hungary of all EU countries benefit most from EU funds: Around twelve billion euros per year recently flowed to Warsaw, five billion to Budapest.
Nothing about that should change in the upcoming seven-year budget, instead both could get even more.
At the moment, however, corona crisis states such as Italy and Spain need the money from Brussels even more urgently - which Poland and Hungary are taking advantage of.
If the rule of law mechanism comes, Poland will block the budget, promised PiS boss Kaczynski, who recently became vice-premier: "We will defend our identity, our freedom and sovereignty at all costs. We will not allow ourselves to be terrorized with money."
So far the strategy is working well.
In the spring, a proposal was still being discussed, according to which the EU Commission should decide for itself who should have their money cut because of violations of the rule of law.
The member states could only have averted this with a particularly large majority.
For the first time, the Commission would have received a sharp weapon against rule-of-law offenders.
But the plan has been watered down several times since then.
At the EU summit in July, the heads of state and government decided that sanctions should only be possible if a qualified majority of the member states are in favor.
The German government, which currently holds the rotating EU Council Presidency and is negotiating with the Commission and Parliament, has now watered down the mechanism even further: it is only to be applied to the use of EU funds and contain high hurdles for proving violations .
"You get the impression that the federal government is not fighting for the rule of law," says Green MEP Daniel Freund.
In the form proposed by Berlin, according to the widespread fear in the EU Parliament, the mechanism would never be triggered in practice.
Even the summit in July was "a zero point when it comes to the rule of law," says Manfred Weber, head of the Christian Democratic EPP group in the EU Parliament, DER SPIEGEL.
"If the European Parliament still manages to anchor an effective rule of law mechanism in the budget, that would be a historic success."
The FDP MEP Moritz Körner also calls for "hardship against Hungary and Poland".
"Otherwise we will soon no longer have to talk about the credibility of the European project."
But this credibility is now threatened with serious damage again.
Because hardly anyone has taken the threat of veto from parliament seriously.
It is almost unthinkable for many in Brussels that the MEPs torpedo the budget and the Corona package, of all things when the second wave of the epidemic is rolling through Europe.
Corona strategy threatens to become a boomerang
However, things could still turn out unpleasant for Poland and Hungary.
Because unlike in spring, when the first corona wave passed both countries almost without a trace, the second wave is now hitting them with full force.
On the corona cards of the EU health authority ECDC, Poland and Hungary are now deep red.
The strategy of using the epidemic as leverage threatens to become a boomerang for Kaczynski and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Time is now running against them too.
In addition, Poland and Hungary are also said to be among the top profiteers from the Corona fund, as the money is primarily distributed according to the usual EU key - and not based on the economic damage caused by the corona virus.
According to parliamentary calculations, Poland would receive around 29 billion and Hungary 6.6 billion.
"A veto", says CSU man Weber, "is therefore unlikely".
The MEPs also believe they have the people of the EU on their side.
According to a poll commissioned by Parliament and published on Tuesday, 77 percent of EU citizens are in favor of making respect for the rule of law a condition for receiving EU funds.
Even in Hungary and Poland there was 72 percent approval each.
Populists, so the hope in parliament, could be thought provoking.
Icon: The mirror
