WARSAW: In a heated showdown over the country’s Supreme Court, Poland announced Tuesday that its top judge would retire on July 4 in line with a disputed reform by the right-wing government, but the chief justice herself has refused to step down.

Chief Justice Malgorzata Gersdorf branded the controversial Supreme Court reform lowering the retirement age of its judges from 70 to 65 a “purge”. And she said she was defying the reform that cuts short her constitutionally guaranteed six-year term ending in 2020.

“As for my status — as the Supreme Court chief justice — it has not changed after my talks with the president, because the constitution gives me a six-year term,” Gersdorf told lawmakers in parliament after holding talks with President Andrzej Duda.

The European Union on Monday launched legal action against Poland due to the reform, the latest salvo in a bitter battle over sweeping judicial changes introduced by the Law and Justice (PiS) government that critics have decried as unconstitutional.

The dispute could end up in the European Court of Justice (EJC), the bloc’s top tribunal.

Gersdorf also announced that she would “come to work tomorrow (Wednesday), later I am going to go on vacation.” She also named a temporary replacement, Jozef Iwulski, to stand in for her during her absence, Supreme Court spokesman Justice Michal Laskowski said.

But presidential aide Pawel Mucha told reporters that Gersdorf was “going into retirement in accordance with the law” and that the Supreme Court was now “headed by Judge Jozef Iwulski”, who was chosen by Duda.

Protests in support of Gersdorf and other defiant judges who have said they will refuse to retire are set to take place on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday around the court’s offices in central Warsaw.

The government has refused to back down despite the EU legal action, insisting the reforms are needed to tackle corruption and overhaul a judicial system still haunted by the communist era.

Twenty-seven of the top court’s 73 judges are affected by the reform. Under the law, those judges can ask the president to prolong their terms, but he can accept or deny their requests without giving a reason. Sixteen judges have made requests, according to Polish media reports. Other affected judges argue that justices who took up their duties before the day the new reform comes into force “should remain in their post until the age of 70, without meeting any additional conditions”.

The European Commission, the bloc’s powerful executive arm, said Monday that the changes would undermine “the irremovability of judges” and judicial independence in Poland, breaching the country’s obligations under EU law.

Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said swift action was needed to “avoid irreparable damage to the independence of the Supreme Court”.

Poland has a month to respond to the commission’s formal announcement, the first stage of a procedure that the EJC may be asked to rule on.

Deputy foreign minister Konrad Szymanski said Monday the government would answer “in detail” within 30 days and warned that the ECJ would face a “very difficult task”.

“Its decision will be very important for the EU because it will define the extent to which EU law can interfere in the autonomy of member states in the way they organise their judicial systems,” Szymanski told AFP.

The row comes after the EU launched hearings last week focused on Poland’s alleged violation of judicial independence over reforms to both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans has been leading discussions with Warsaw to try to find a solution but has said there has been no progress.

Brussels in December triggered so-called Article Seven proceedings against Poland over “systemic threats” to the rule of law, which could eventually see Warsaw’s EU voting rights suspended.—AFP