“We are Europe!”: Protests in Poland against judgment of the Constitutional Court

In Poland, thousands of people across the country demonstrated against a controversial ruling by the Constitutional Court and for their country to remain in the EU.

In Warsaw, the demonstrators gathered in Palace Square.

They waved Polish and European flags and shouted: “We stay” and “We are Europe!”.

There were also protests in Gdansk, Poznan, Szczecin, Krakow and many other cities.

The country's Constitutional Court recently ruled that certain elements of EU law violated the Polish Constitution.

This gave national law priority over EU law.

This decision is fueling the conflict between the EU Commission and Warsaw over the reform of the Polish judicial system.

Former EU Council President and Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk called for the protests.

He accuses the national conservative ruling party PiS of wanting to lead the country out of the EU.

"The place of Poland is in Europe", Tusk said in front of the demonstrators in Warsaw, "We will win because we are more!"

The PiS government has been restructuring the judiciary for years.

Critics accuse her of putting judges under pressure.

Due to the reforms, the EU Commission has already opened several infringement proceedings against Warsaw and filed suits with the European Court of Justice.