In course of judicial reform, Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has now also sent country’s supreme judge, Małgorzata Gersdorf, to forced retirement. Her retirement was from Wednesday, after a meeting between head of state and Judge Gersdorf in Warsaw. There she should take her discharge certificate.
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The judge did not comment on meeting at first. Her spokeswoman, however, said that Gersdorf had “in case of her absence” appointed a judge to represent her. Gersdorf also wanted to go to work at Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Gersdorf had refused to abandon her post a few hours earlier. “I feel as president until 2020,” she told private channel TVN24. Before students at University of Warsaw, she spoke of a “purge” at Supreme Court by national Conservative government in Warsaw.
The ruling party PiS had lowered age limit of judges at Supreme Court from 70 to 65 years. About one third of judges re are affected by retirement. Critics accuse government of replacing previous judges with forced retirement of ir judge.
The law already adopted by Parliament and signed by Duda is one of controversial legal reforms that EU Commission has been taking against Warsaw since 2016. The EU Commission criticises reforms that would curtail independence of judiciary and undermine separation of powers. Lastly, Commission extended its action against reform of judiciary and initiated infringement proceedings against Poland. In ir view, new regulation on retirement of judges is illegal.