POLAND’S populist government, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, has seen its fair share of protests since coming to power in late 2015. Demonstrators gathered on the streets of Warsaw when the government sought to weaken the constitutional tribunal and pack it with loyalists. They did so again when it purged more than 130 journalists from the state media. Thousands of black-clad women took to the streets against a plan to make it even harder to get an abortion. But the wave of protests since December 13th, including a parliamentary sit-in by opposition MPs, suggests that discontent is still growing.
The latest discord started on December 13th, the 35th anniversary of martial law in communist Poland. That day the government passed a law restricting freedom of assembly. Sites for demonstrations can be reserved for up to three years, it says, but preference will be given to “cyclical” rallies marking “especially…important events for Poland’s history” (rather than, say, protests against the actions of the government). Any counter-protests have to be at least 100 metres away. Thousands…
The Economist: Europe