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July 5, 2018

Poland: Judges Defy Retirement Order as Former President Warns of "Civil War"
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In Poland, top judges are refusing to step down after the right-wing
Polish government ordered a third of the Supreme Court to retire in what
the European Union and other critics say is part of an authoritarian
takeover of the judiciary. Thousands of protesters gathered outside the
Supreme Court in Warsaw Wednesday to support the court's president, who
went to work in defiance of a new law lowering the retirement age of the
Supreme Court from 70 to 65. This is former Polish President Lech
Walesa, who joined Wednesday's protests.

Lech Walesa: "It is getting serious when they ruin our courts. Sooner or
later, this may lead to a civil war."



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