Poland’s former president and Solidarity trade union leader Lech Walesa walks with flowers during Solidarity’s 34th anniversary in front of the gate to the historic shipyard in front of the newly open European Solidarity centre in Gdansk, Poland, in this August 31, 2014 file picture. Walesa, onetime leader of the pro-democracy Solidarity trade union that ended communism in Poland, called for a referendum which would force governing Law and Justice (PiS) party to conduct early election, as he sees democracy at risk.

AFP
Warsaw

Poland’s former president Lech Walesa lashed out yesterday at the policies of the ruling conservatives, saying they were undermining democracy and making his country a laughing stock.
Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement that brought an end to communism in Poland, called for a referendum on the holding of early elections.
He has been sharply critical of the ruling Law and Justice Party (Pis) which on Tuesday pushed through a controversial law that the opposition says will paralyse the country’s top court and remove important checks on government power.
“This government is acting against Poland’s interests, against freedom, against democracy, and is ridiculing us around the world,” Walesa said on Radio Zet.
“I am ashamed to travel abroad.”
Calling for a referendum on a new election, he said: “We must show that two thirds (of society) is against this type of rule and must shorten (parliament’s) term.”
Poland has been plunged into a political crisis by the actions of the Pis since the party led by staunch conservative ex-premier Jarolsaw Kaczynski won an absolute majority in an October vote.
Parliament on Tuesday adopted — by 235 votes to 181 with four abstentions — controversial reforms to the Constitutional Court which have provoked an avalanche of criticism at home and abroad.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Poland’s capital Warsaw and other cities last weekend ahead of the vote, accusing the conservative government of undermining democracy.  
European Parliament chief Martin Schulz has compared the political situation in Poland to a “coup”, drawing the anger of Prime Minister Beata Szydlo who demanded an apology.
The new law raises the bar for the court’s rulings from a simple majority to a two-thirds majority, while requiring 13 judges to be present instead of nine for the most contentious cases.
Walesa had last week warned of the risk of “civil war” as a result of the new government’s policies in the EU member state of around 38 million people.
He spoke out against changes to the court after the Pis attempted to install five judges of its own choosing and refused to recognise those appointed by the previous parliament.
Walesa’s words carry special weight as Kaczynski was his advisor when he became Poland’s first democratically-elected president since World War II in 1990, although the two have been at loggerheads in the past.