Poland's president rejects controversial amendment

President Andrzej Duda, stressing the right to free assembly, has refused to sign a controversial amendment written and passed by his own political party, Law and Justice (PiS), instead sending the bill to Poland’s Supreme Court for review, the press secretary of the Constitutional Court said on Thursday. The head of the press office of the Presidential Chancellery Marek Magierowski said that President Duda had three main concerns with the multi-faceted amendment, which passed in Poland's Lower House of Parliament (the Sejm) in mid-December. “President Andrzej Duda refused to sign the bill to amend the Law on Assemblies, [and] decided to refer the bill to the Constitutional Court in a preventive mode, the application was signed yesterday. Today, this request has been sent to the Constitutional Court,” said Magierowski. He noted that the President supports the right to assemble, the right to express [one's] views and freedom of speech, which is in his opinion one of the most important pillars of any democratic system, Magierowski added, in part quoting Duda. Magierowski went on to highlight Duda's three main concerns, which were enumerated as: concern over the differentiation status of public meetings; the lack of “the possibility of appeal” by the organizer of the assembly; and the prohibitions listed in  assembling [under] newly established (PiS-proposed) rules. Earlier this month, Parliament completed work on the amendments to the Law on Assemblies by Law and Justice, regulating the rules of assembly. One change stipulated that there be a distance of more than 100 metres between assembled parties.  The new rules have been criticized by non-governmental organizations, the Opposition in the Sejm, members of the Supreme Court, the Ombudsman, and representatives of the OSCE.