Aktualne kierunki rozwoju władzy sądowniczej. Marsz Tysiąca Tóg rok później

Dear Judges,

Esteemed Participants,

Jorge Luís Borges, the Argentinian genius, once said that “perhaps universal history is the history of a few metaphors”.

In this context, speaking to all of you fellow judges and supporters of Rule of Law, among equals and friends, allow me to share some personal stories, memories of the March of 1000 Robes, metaphors of the essential values we stubbornly, as some will accuse us, defend, no matter what.

During the March, walking in the crowded streets of Warsaw, surrounded by judges from dozens of European countries, a Polish common citizen, an old woman, tears in her eyes, with an unforgettable dignified posture, voiced me some words in Polish impossible for me to understand besides one, repeated: “dziękuję”, thank you, thank you.

A kind Polish colleague explained me that she was expressing gratitude for our solidarity to the persecuted independent judges and prosecutors in her country. The same attitude was repeatedly shown during the day by many other citizens, marching along with us, foreign judges.

This lady represents, for me, the concrete personification of judicial independence.

The meeting with this good woman on such a special day and the brief words we exchanged, with the help of an ad-hoc translator, are a vivid metaphor of our mission as judges.

To serve our fellow citizens, remembering always, especially to the other State Powers, the essential: judicial independence is not a privilege credited to judges but a guarantee, priceless and precious, for anonymous citizens, in any given country.

The second special moment of January 11th has to do with the words I had the unique opportunity to address to the “sea of people” present in front of the Parliament.

Those words, echoing our profound concerns, expressing what lived in our hearts, remain actual, more crucial than ever:

“I truly believe that for years to come the present March will be remembered.

Never so many countries, so many judiciaries from so diverse juridical cultures, converge on a single day, to a single place (…)

We, judges, who defend on each day, in each court, the Rule of Law instead of the Rule by Law. We who apply the Rule of Law and not the Rule of Men.

The European authorities must listen to the voice, humble but resilient, serene but determined, of the Polish Judges, of the European Judges.

The judges have spoken”.