ABSTRACT
The logic of democratic backsliding is quite central to understanding the illiberal and de-Europeanisation trends that can be observed in Warsaw after the 2015 parliamentary elections. Generally, European Union (EU) policy towards the Central European candidate states was widely regarded as predominantly being a policy of conditionality. The European Community had already existed for almost 30 years when the Single European Act mentioned the promotion of democracy for the first time in 1992. The Union dedicates itself legally to democratic values and their defence. Since the developments in Hungary in 2010, it has become clear that the infringement of European values and the transformation of any EU Member State to an illiberal polity is not acceptable within the European context. The supranational institutions are treated as intrusive when they interfere with the domestic Polish constitutional order.
