WARSAW, Poland _ Poland's government vowed to redouble its efforts to overhaul the judiciary after the president vetoed draft laws that have touched off debate in the European Union over how to confront members who flout democratic values.
Dealing a blow to the ruling party that backed his presidency, Andrzej Duda struck down bills on Monday that would have replaced Poland's Supreme Court judges and revamped the Judicial Council, which makes key personnel decisions. His decision followed eight days of nationwide protests by tens of thousands of Poles in defense of court independence and an EU threat of sanctions against the bloc's largest beneficiary of development funds.
Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said her government wouldn't "submit to pressure" to back off and Duda's rejection of the laws had only slowed down changes she insists are necessary to what she says is an unaccountable judiciary. Her ruling Law & Justice party, which has vowed to take the nation of 38 million people out of "mainstream Europe" and return it to its conservative Catholic roots, will put the courts under the people's power in the same way that parliament and the cabinet are, she said.
"The veto has been treated as an encouragement for those who fight to keep this unjust system in place," Szydlo said in a televised statement that was broadcast at the same time as a speech by Duda. "In the elections, Poles trusted Law & Justice, and we fulfill our promises."
The partial veto erects at least a temporary obstacle for Law & Justice party, which since taking power in 2015 has pushed through laws that have challenged the EU's democratic principles and sparked warnings about a drift toward authoritarian rule. The U.S. State Department has also criticized the draft legislation, and on Saturday, U.S. Sen. John McCain called the court revamp "one step back for democracy."
When announcing the two vetoes, Duda said he still saw the need for judicial reform and called on lawmakers to rework the laws in the next two months. He approved a third draft law giving the justice minister the right to nominate the heads of local courts, stripping that power from the court of appeal.
After meeting Szydlo, he said he "believes" the amended bills will be quickly approved by the parliament and "this wise and pro-social reform of the judiciary system will be a fact."
If the government pushes ahead with the reform, it will deepen a standoff with the European Commission, which said last week it was near recommending the implementation of Article 7, a procedure that could pave the way for Poland to lose its EU voting rights. Having been granted more than 250 billion euros ($285 billion) from the EU since it joined in 2004, Poland is already subject to the EU's first-ever inquiry into democratic behavior.
The commission is monitoring "the events and the situation in Poland very closely" and will address the matter on Wednesday, spokesman Margaritis Schinas said in Brussels following Duda's announcement. "Things are changing even as we speak."
Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity movement that helped bring down communism more than a quarter of a century ago, welcomed the vetoes. But he called Duda's approval of the law on lower courts "a bad decision" and urged Poles to continue protests.
Law & Justice and its ruling allies don't have the required three-fifths majority in the lower house to override the veto. Opposition parties said they were girding for a battle. A crowd of several hundred people gathered in front of the Supreme Court singing the national anthem after Szydlo's statement.
"The president's veto doesn't meet the end of the story," Jan Grabiec, spokesman of Civic Platform said by phone. "There is no vacation for lawmakers. We're expecting quite an aggressive response to Duda's veto from Law & Justice."
Duda said he spent the weekend consulting with lawyers and judges, as well as professors of law, philosophy and sociology in his decision, which he said he made to prevent Poland from being "disrupted by a political war." He said one person he spoke to was former dissident Zofia Romaszewska.
"She said 'I used to live in the state where the general prosecutor also had an unbelievably powerful position, and I do not want to live in such a country again,'" Duda said.
