Adam Bodnar: The Polish justice minister at center of political battle over rule of law  – POLITICO

WARSAW — When the opposition won power in last October’s general election it vowed that returning the rule of law to Poland would be a top priority. That promise is now putting Justice Minister Adam Bodnar on the hot seat.

Bodnar is involved in most of the battles against the legacy of the Law and Justice (PiS) party that ruled Poland for eight years and came under fire for trying to politicize the justice system, turn public media into the propaganda arm of the ruling party, and put its loyalists in control of key institutions and state-controlled companies.

That’s all being undone under the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose point man is Bodnar, 47, a soft-spoken lawyer who served as Poland’s ombudsman from 2015 to 2021 (which saw him go toe-to-toe with the PiS government) and is now the justice minister and chief prosecutor.