The EU threatened Poland with the unprecedented step of sanctioning it with Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, a move that would suspend Warsaw’s voting rights within the bloc. But the threat by the EU’s first vice president, Frans Timmermans, notwithstanding, any move to use Article 7 must be unanimous—and that’s not likely given that Hungary, Poland’s Visegrad ally, has threatened to veto any such action.
The Senate’s 55-23 vote came in the early hours of Saturday after 16 hours of contentious debate. The vote came two days after the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, approved the measure. President Andzrej Duda, who normally supports the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), must then sign the bill into law. He has 21 days to do so. A spokesman for the president said Duda saw flaws in the measure, but declined to say whether he would sign it or seek the opinion of the country’s constitutional court. [...]
The legislation prompted massive protests, including this week after the Sejm’s vote. It was one of the largest protests in Warsaw since PiS came to power in late 2015. The demonstrations continued into early Friday. Protesters carried both Polish and EU flags, and chanted against the government. [...]
For the EU, watching Poland go the way of Hungary has been startling. It may begin infringement procedures against Poland as early as next week—a process that could take years. For the EU, the promise of the era following the collapse of the Berlin Wall was fulfilled when Poland and other Eastern bloc countries joined the EU in 2004. More than a decade later, that initial promise is, in the EU’s view, imperiled.
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