WARSAW: Poland's former president Lech Walesa lashed out Wednesday 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, added his voice to an increasingly large chorus of criticism at home and abroad against the actions of the EU country's new government, by calling for a referendum to force 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 Jaroslaw 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.
The European Union on Wednesday called on Poland's ruling conservatives to uphold the rule of law and hold off adopting the reforms.
"I would expect that this law is not finally adopted or at least not put into force until all questions regarding the impact of this law on the independence and the functioning of the Constitutional tribunal have been fully and properly assessed," wrote the European Commission's vice president Frans Timmermans in a letter to Poland's foreign and justice ministers.
- 'Band of cronies' -
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.
Poland's Supreme Court has said the new law interferes with the court's independence and aims to hinder its proper functioning.
The law introduces obligatory waiting periods of three to six months between the time a request for a ruling is made and a verdict, compared with two weeks currently.
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.
The PiS's Kaczynski, who is neither president nor prime minister but is widely thought to pull the strings in his party, has said he wanted to break up the "band of cronies" he said made up the court.
He has accused it of trying to block government policies, including on family benefits and the retirement age.
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