Thousands of Poles protest against controversial judicial reform

Thousands of people protested across Poland Friday evening after members of the Polish parliament from the ruling party gave initial backing to controversial bills to reform the judiciary.

Demonstrators demanded the withdrawal of draft laws on the reform of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) and the Supreme Court (SN), holding banners saying "I love freedom over everything."

Hundreds of demonstrators in the capital city of Warsaw gathered in front of the Presidential Palace, shouting the slogan "free courts, free elections, free Poland."

According to the organizers of the protest, people have gathered in front of the courts in more than 100 Polish cities on Friday, and 19 protests will take place in 123 places afterwards, including in foreign cities such as Chicago, Dublin, Copenhagen, London, Zagreb and others across the world.

Polish President Andrzej Duda prepared his own bills on the KRS and the SN following his vetoes in July of an earlier version of bills drafted by the ruling Law and Justice party.

With more than three months of negotiations, Duda and the ruling party tweaked the presidential bills in order to strike an agreement on the ultimate shape of the reforms.

The Polish Sejm (lower house) held the first reading of the presidential bills on Thursday, and sent the acts for further processing to its Justice and Human Rights Committee on Friday.

The committee is tasked with working on the SN and KRS drafts next week, with the second reading of the bills provisionally scheduled for Dec. 6.

The Polish government has been preparing judicial reforms for several months, igniting controversies among Polish citizens and foreign institutions.