alt Hacker NewsDidn't expect that stuff to reach HN... anyway:
> packing the Polish Constitutional Court
This didn’t start with PiS. PO, just before losing power, tried to elect five Tribunal judges at once, including two seats that weren’t theirs yet. The Tribunal later said: three OK, two not OK.
PiS then did the PiS thing: ignored the three valid ones too, and installed its own people. So yes, PiS behaved badly. But "PiS packed the court" skips the opening move.
American-ish version: lame-duck Senate tries to pre-fill future SCOTUS seats. Incoming side responds by throwing the furniture around.
> filling the government with party loyalists
For normal political jobs, what’s the issue? That’s politics. Republicans appoint Republicans. Democrats appoint Democrats.
> placing restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly
What are you referring to exactly?
> For normal political jobs, what’s the issue? That’s politics. Republicans appoint Republicans. Democrats appoint Democrats.
You're presumably coming from a US point of view (the US has an unusual system where the entire top level of the civil service, pretty much, are always political appointees), but in Europe this often _would_ be seen as a sign of corruption (and honestly it should be in the US too; it has gotten way worse there since Trump I; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendleton_Civil_Service_Reform...).