A well-known Polish statue of the sea god Neptune has become the latest of the country's icons to be dressed in a white T-shirt emblazoned with the word 'constitution' in an act of protest by malcontent Poles who say that the government is undermining the rule of law.
Neptune joins a host of other Polish monuments, including that of a former king, to undergo the image makeover.
Activists argue that the change erodes at the independence traditionally enjoyed by the highest legal body in Poland.
@SMGdansk czy przyjęto zgłoszenie dotyczące wczorajszego aktu wandalizmu. Dotyczy zawieszenia koszulki na zabytkowej Fontanna Neptuna. Czy powiadomili państwo służby konserwatorskie?
— Gdańsk Strefa (@GdanskStrefa) August 10, 2018
Prosimy o odpowiedź. @MrowickiRafal @RadioGdansk @Trojmiasto_pl pic.twitter.com/3HPytAUL3V
The protest group behind the T-shirt campaign, known as ‘KOD,' are quoted as saying that the action is part of "an attempt to draw the attention of brad public opinion to the fact that the president, despite many protests, signed a bill which changes the Supreme Court into a mock-up."
On the other hand, Duda's government has asserted that such an alternation to the court necessitates much needed changes to the country's judicial system, long hampered by the remnants of a cumbersome bureaucracy inherited from the communist era.
Alongside large civilian protests in Warsaw, Duda's move also earned him the consternation of the European Union, which threatened to suspend Poland's membership of the European Union (EU) over the Supreme Court legislation.
