Adam Bodnar leaves the Ministry of Justice with elevated head and high-profile declarations. The problem is that not all resignation deserves fanfare, not all balance sheet can be covered with noble rhetoric. Within a fewer months, Bodnar was to do groundbreaking things – improvement the courts, settle pathologies in the prosecutor's office and reconstruct citizens' assurance in justice. no of this has happened.
His word is simply a festival of announcements and disappointed hopes. erstwhile Bodnar included the ministry, many treated him as a human-institution—a erstwhile Ombudsman, a lawyer with a strong image, a surname associated with the conflict for human rights. But in confronting tough political reality, he turned out to be powerless, inefficient and – even worse – protective.
Minister of Declaration
Most of Bodnar's achievements are in the symbolic sphere. Meetings, statements, posts on social media, “important voices” in public debate. However, what truly matters in the Ministry of Justice is what is missing: concrete changes, effective actions and a hard fight against – as he claimed – pathologies inherited from Zbigniew Ziobrze.
Bodnar himself admitted:
“Key projects were prepared in the Ministry, any of them were passed by the Sejm, but the President’s signature was missing until their entry into force.”
That message sounds like an excuse. Everyone knew that Andrzej Duda would not sign laws that reconcile the legacy of the Laws. Bodnar's known this since the first day of office. His function was not only to compose draft laws, but to build political and social pressures to force their admission. Meanwhile, the ministry fell into a drift – politically it was invisible, fundamentally locked in an expert bubble.
Bodnar's biggest failure is the deficiency of real settlements for the erstwhile years, that is, as the coalition convinces – a violation of the regulation of law. Investigative commissions, disciplinary proceedings, audits at the D.A.'s office were announced. Bodnar not only did not account for his predecessors, but he seems to have tried not to annoy anyone. It's like he's afraid of reaction. It's like he thinks that correctness and legal language are adequate to change the system. It was a large mistake.
Human stagnation
One of Bodnar's loud moves was the appointment of justice Waldemar Żurek (he will now replace him as Minister) to the head of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecutor's Office. Now Bodnar himself writes:
“I appointed justice Waldemar Żurek to service as Deputy manager of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecutors. It is so natural for me to proceed to work together, although in a different role.”
This confession reveals an crucial problem – staff. alternatively of looking for fresh faces, Bodnar reached out to proven “his” – people who have been circulating in the same environment for years, frequently having more capacity for publicistics than reforms. This strategy of promoting friends and loyal names resembles an old policy alternatively than a fresh quality. There was no strategical reform, no courage. There was a wait. Until the president signs something. Until the European Commission suggests something. Until “conditions will be favourable”.
Bodnar ends his word with the words:
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude and respect to the members of the Management Board of the Ministry of Justice and the Executive Board of the Prosecutor’s Office, as well as to all employees (...)”
But did this squad feel individual was actually in charge of it? Have they seen in Bodnar a leader who can make hard decisions, impose pace, require results? The signals from the hotel itself indicate that there was stagnation and excessive caution. Even publically loyal associates admitted unofficially that Bodnar avoided hard confrontations.
For the Coalition electorate on October 15, Adam Bodnar was to be a symbol of change. He was going to dismantle the concrete built by Zbigniew Ziobra, clear the prosecutor's office, heal the courts. His resignation is to admit that no of these things happened. After six months of work – zero accounts, no breakthroughs, no specifics. From the position of the “pro-democratic” voters, a golden minute was spent to start with a real reform. In private talks, coalition politicians admit: Bodnar was a problem – due to the fact that his inaction demobilized his own electorate and weakened the government's message, which was to be courageous, reformist and hard against the past.
On the another hand, Adam Bodnar was besides a convenient mark for the opposition at all times. For PiS and its surroundings, he was the personification of everything that the elites of III of Poland value: "Legal-human language", European standards, description alternatively of force. This page did not forget that Bodnar – inactive as an RPO – defended the rights of LGBT people, migrants and protesters against the Law and Justice Government. Now, as a minister, he was seen as the 1 who wants to reconstruct control of the courts to the old treaty. In the eyes of many Conservatives, it was not a improvement – it was a restaurant, an effort to reverse the changes from 2015 to 1923, regardless of their legitimacy. Critics on this side of the political scene indicate that Bodnar wanted to throw out judges only for being nominated by the "neo-KRS", not due to real crimes. They consider it a witch hunt and political revenge in white gloves. The right besides accuses him of the ideology of the ministry, where the key positions were taken by people “from 1 circle”, frequently mediative but not necessarily effective.
Nor was there any deficiency of accusations of legal snobbery – a distraction from the everyday life of average citizens and a focus on the global image. For the average PiS voter – Bodnar was what discourages them from the elite: eloquent, uncompromising in ideas, but powerless in practice.
