Declaring its conservative government a threat to ‘European values’, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for the European Union (EU) to consider activating a mechanism dubbed the ‘nuclear option’ against Poland.
The election of President Donald J. Trump in the U.S. represents an “overtly nationalistic and anti-rights form of populism” which poses a “serious external threat” to the EU, according to the NGO’s “advocacy director for Europe” Philippe Dam.
Warning that Poland poses an internal threat to the bloc, he says the European Commission should trigger Article 7 of the Lisbon treaty — a never before used legal mechanism which would result in the nation losing its voting rights in the European Council.
In the piece, published by EUobserver Tuesday, Dam highlights government officials’ criticism of mass migration and Soros-backed “human rights groups” as among a “cross-section of practices that contradict Europe’s values and require action from the European Union”.
Other measures the piece cites as being “policies that threaten basic human rights” include “a plan to roll back women’s abortion rights” and a June 2016 Anti-Terrorist Act which makes it easier for Poland’s state security service to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals.
Dam urges the EU to follow through with sanctions after the body launched a probe looking into “systemic threats” to the rule of law in Poland. The Commission and the liberal media allege that the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party launched an attack on an independent judiciary by refusing to swear in judges to Poland’s top constitutional court.
Just three weeks before losing power in 2015, the country’s former ruling party Civic Platform had appointed three new judges to replace three sitting ones before their term was up, so as to further stack the benches in their favour.
HRW is heavily funded by Hungarian George Soros, who backs hundreds of groups across the world with the aim of furthering a variety of goals which include abolishing national borders and restricting the police’s ability to enforce law and order.
In 2010, the billionaire hedge fund manager pledged to give $100 million (£80 million) to HRW over a ten year period. The American NGO’s most recent tax filings show it received $10 million from Soros’ Open Society Foundations in 2014.
In September, PiS MP Krystyna Pawłowicz called for Soros to be stripped of Poland’s highest honour for foreigners, accusing the globalist speculator of “openly and brazenly financing the anti-democratic and anti-Polish element with a view to fight Polish sovereignty and indigenous Christian culture”.