Committee for the Defence of Democracy

A KOD demonstration in Warsaw, on 19 December 2015.

A KOD demonstration in Gdańsk on 19 December 2015.

The Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Polish: Komitet Obrony Demokracji, KOD) is a Polish civic organization, founded in November 2015 by a group of citizens including Mateusz Kijowski, as a result of, and triggered by, the Polish constitutional crisis, 2015. The organization is sponsored by a network of organizations financed by George Soros. Although is independent of any political parties^[1] its program closely matches that of the Civic Platform. The organization has declared that it has no intention currently to transform into one,^[2] but its events and actions are supported by the liberal opposition including the Nowoczesna (Modern) and Civic Platform (PO) parties.^[3] It is opposed to the actions of the government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.^[4]

The organization was awarded the 2016 European Citizens' Prize by the European Parliament for defending fundamental rights and democracy.^[5]

Background

KOD was formed in opposition to several actions taken by the governing party, Law and Justice (Polish: Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS),^[4] which in October 2015 became the first party in post-communist Polish history to control an absolute majority of the seats in the Polish Parliament, with a PiS-backed candidate, Andrzej Duda, winning the presidential elections just a few months earlier.^[6] The primary impetus for the formation of KOD was the Parliament’s enactment of a law on November 26, 2015 purporting to invalidate the prior Government’s appointment of five judges to the Polish Constitutional Court and the nomination of new PiS-affiliated judges to replace them.^[7][8] Since then the organisation has opposed and reacted to any actions taken by the government or President Andrzej Duda which were deemed unlawful, undermining democracy, limiting civil liberties or going against European principles.^[9]

Activity

On November 26, 2015, the members of KOD wrote an open letter entitled “A Letter of the Citizens of the Constitutional State to Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland” asking him to swear in three of the five judges to the Constitutional Court. KOD argued that those three, although not the other two, were duly elected by the previous parliament.^[10]

As the disagreements between the governing party and the Constitutional Court continued, KOD called for protests against what it perceives as a breach of the Constitution in violation of democratic norms and the constitutional separation of powers between the legislature, executive branch, and judiciary.^[8]

• Demonstration, which was estimated by “Der Spiegel” and “Le Monde” to include 50,000 demonstrators,^[11][12] and at between 17,000 and 20,000 people by the police,^[13] took place in front of the headquarters of the Constitutional Court in Warsaw on December 12, 2015. Parallel demonstrations were also held in other major Polish cities, including: Poznań (over 2,000 people), Szczecin (over 2,000 people), Wrocław (approx. 2,000 people), Lublin (500), and Bielsko-Biała (200).
• On December 13, 2015, over 3,000 people demonstrated in Gdańsk..
• On 9 January there were demonstrations on the "Free Media" in 20 cities in Poland.
• On January 23, 40 cities and towns in Poland saw protests about "Defense of Your freedom".
• A demonstration with 70,000 people was held in Warsaw on 27 February; it was called "We, the People".
• A demonstration under the theme "We are and will remain in Europe" took place on May 7 in Warsaw and was estimated to gather up to 240,000 people by City Hall.^[14]

Most of the protests in Poland are accompanied by smaller protests by KOD cells in most European capitals and around the world, notably in Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin and the USA. Nevertheless, most of the Polish émigré-community has been supportive of the PiS government. ^[15] ==Supporters==

The Committee's actions were supported by several artists and intellectuals, including Agnieszka Holland, Andrzej Wajda, Marek Kondrat, Krystyna Janda, Daniel Olbrychski, Maja Ostaszewska, Robert Więckiewicz, Maja Komorowska, Bronisław Maj, Ewa Lipska, Jan Woleński, Jerzy Zdrada, Karol Modzelewski, Jerzy Vetulani and Jan Hartman. Agnieszka Holland declared that she wanted to return to the old order and called for the peaceful removal of the government.^[16]

Footnotes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Komitet Obrony Demokracji.

• Official international website
• Official Polish website
• English version of the Polish Constitution