Up for discussion
Is it a good thing that parties can be elected to the European Parliament when their election programmes openly call for the abolition of that very parliament? Or should committing to the ‘free and democratic EU order’ also be a prerequisite for parties for participating in European elections?
“Democracy is known to be the best political system because you can insult it with impunity.” (Quote by Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist). Can one fully agree with this statement?
“The liberal, secular state depends on conditions that it cannot guarantee itself. That is the great risk it has taken for the sake of freedom.” (Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, 1967). What kind of (voluntary) restrictions on freedom are required for a liberal state to exist? And can this be demanded of citizens?
Case study: Poland
In Poland, the national conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) was in power between 2023 and 2025. The party leaders tried in various ways to restructure the country’s judiciary system based on their own ideas. In ‘Die verwundbare Demokratie’ [The vulnerable Democracy] (2024), pp. 27–39, Maximilian Steinbeis outlines the following stages of this process:
> Appointment of government party members to the Polish Constitutional Court
> Denunciations of liberal-democratic constitutional judges
> Delaying proceedings through cooperation between the President and the Constitutional Court
> Changing the election procedure for judges in line with the illiberal government
> Forced retirement of judges
> Disciplinary proceedings against judges
> Threats against judges who referred cases to the ECJ