..In 2011, Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s right-wing Law and
Justice Party (known as PiS), announced he wanted to create “Budapest in
Warsaw.” Since his party’s resounding election victory in October, the
conservative politician has kept his promise. Led by Kaczyński protégé
Beata Szydło, the new Law and Justice government has done everything it
can to emulate the authoritarian course of Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán: already, it has attacked the constitutional court,
undermined Poland’s independent civil service, and set out to bring the
public media under government control. Unlike in the case of Hungary,
the European Union has reacted quickly. Leading EU figures declared that
fundamental democratic values were threatened by Warsaw. And on January
13, the European Commission was sufficiently concerned to open a
“probe” into the workings of the rule of law in Poland, a step that is
unprecedented in EU history..''
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