Igor

They want to frame what is happening in Poland as right versus left. But the real issue is global control over sovereign decision making. Who decides a country’s future and who answers to its people? A dispute over appointments to Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, the court that determines whether laws comply with the constitution, has escalated into the suspension of its head and police blocking access to the courthouse. The country’s elected president had to make his way through a police cordon to enter. Does that sound at all reasonable or democratic to you? People can disagree about which side is right. But sending police to the courthouse does not establish that you are acting lawfully. And where does the authority end? National governments, EU institutions and courts all making decisions that affect people’s lives. When those authorities conflict, who is ultimately in charge? Who answers to the citizens? Countries must be able to reject terms that do not serve their people. International cooperation cannot mean surrendering the ability to say no. This is what concerns me: people exercising enormous power, spending public money and surrounding themselves with people who will never challenge them. The citizen comes last, expected to pay, comply and live with the consequences, then treated as the problem for objecting. How does anything improve when those responsible refuse to listen, resist accountability and expect the public to simply accept the consequences? What gives me hope is that people are questioning who holds power, how it is being used and whose interests it serves. Citizens are entitled to more than explanations for why a failing system must stay the same. No institution is entitled to unquestioning obedience. Every exercise of public power must have lawful authority, clear limits and accountability to the people.