Why do we need opposition?

19 December 2017. We recommend the article written by INPRIS staff on the role and tasks of the opposition in the discussion on the reform of the justice system

Łukasz Bojarski: For a long time, many people have been talking about the weakness of the opposition, some quietly, others loud, but all the time I have the impression that it benefits from a reduced criticism, despite the fact that it has failed for two years and allows PiS to appropriate subsequent areas of the state and build a monopoly. 

In the article written with Filip Wejman we do not limit ourselves to criticizing the opposition. We also talk about what opposition should do. In the area of justice system, which has been an absolute key for 2 years, and which the opposition has lost disgracefully, what will have huge consequences for all of us in the future. We write, among others (article is written in Polish):The opposition is passive, reactive, gave the field to PiS, so the PiS took it in. It introduces itself as the one who undertook the reform.

How is it that private foundations, think tanks, Civil Society Organizations that have much less material resources than political parties, are able to research and comment on specific activities around the justice system, and the parliamentary opposition does not? Who is willing, may easily compare reports, opinions, analyzes of the organizations with the achievements of the parliamentary commission.

When we write these words, the Senate voted on the law on the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary, only the signature of the president is left. Various opinions indicate that although many institutions and persons, including Prof. Adam Strzembosz in a personal appeal, call Andrzej Duda to veto, for the third time, since December 2015, just before Christmas, we will get an unconstitutional bill as a present. It is already somehow a Christmas tradition. So one can ask whether the "reform" of the justice, at least in part concerning the court system, is already a history?  No, it is not. 

It is easy to criticize, one may say. So what exactly should the opposition actually do in our opinion?

You can find an answer in the article in the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (in Polish)