UK historian argues Poland's democracy is 'under threat'

The historian and journalist, who was one of the founders of Oxford University's Programme on Modern Poland, has stated that “the voices of all allied democracies, in Europe and across the Atlantic, must be raised to express their concern about a turn with grave implications for the whole democratic west.” 

Garton Ash described Law and Justice's actions since being elected on 25 October 2015 as “a political blitzkrieg”, arguing that “basic pillars of its still youthful liberal democracy, such as the constitutional court , public service broadcasters and a professional civil service, are suddenly under threat.” 

He also claimed that President Andrzej Duda, formerly a member of Law and Justice, “is behaving like the glove puppet” of party leader Jarosław Kaczyński. 

Poland's two largest opposition parties, the centrist Civic Platform and Nowoczesna, have backed a recent wave of public demonstrations against the socially conservative Law and Justice's reforms. ...