Poland's president on Tuesday signed into law controversial legislation aimed at disciplining judges who question government judicial reforms that the European Union says are out of step with the rule of law.
Poland's human rights commissioner and opposition politicians immediately criticised the move as undermining judicial independence, calling it a first step in the direction of a "Polexit" out of the EU's legal order.
Spokesman Blazej Spychalski told Poland's PAP news agency that President Andrzej Duda had signed the amendment that critics, including Poland's Supreme Court Justice Malgorzata Gersdorf, have dubbed a "muzzle law".
The amendment allows the disciplining of judges "whose public activities are incompatible with the principles of the independence of the courts and the independence of judges."
Drafted by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party and pushed through parliament by its lawmakers, the measure has been widely criticised by the European Commission and top European legal bodies as undermining judicial independence.
Judges from nearly all EU members joined hundreds of their Polish colleagues in Warsaw last month in an unprecedented street protest against moves to discipline judges and so to effectively gag critical magistrates.
Liberal presidential candidate Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, Duda's main rival in this May's presidential election, said on Tuesday that the new law was "removing Poland from Europe's legal system".
This was echoed by Adam Bodnar, Poland's human rights commissioner.
"Today Poland has taken a huge step towards legal Polexit," tweeted Bodnar, adding that it was "a sad day for Poland, the EU, the rule of law and the legal security of citizens."
Since taking office in 2015, the PiS has introduced a slew of controversial judicial reforms that it insists are designed to tackle corruption.
But critics, including top European judicial bodies, argue they undermine the rule of law, so threatening Poland's democracy.
In late 2017, the EU launched unprecedented proceedings against Poland over "systemic threats" posed by the reforms to the rule of law that could see its EU voting rights suspended.
Duda signed the law just hours after visiting French President Emmanuel Macron warned Poland against undermining European values and rules.
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