The Parliament approved the bill reinstating the Supreme Court judges three weeks ago, after less than four hours of debate. But President Andrzej Duda — who had been the face and force behind the court purge — waited until the last hours before his formal deadline Monday night to sign the bill into law.
Michal Wawrykiewicz, a lawyer from the Free Courts Initiative and Committee for Defense of Justice, called the reversal “a failure of the ruling camp, and victory of the rule of law.”
“Signing it must have been very uncomfortable for the president,” Mr. Wawrykiewicz said. “He waited until the last minute when he knew his voters had Christmas, and not the rule of law, on their minds.”