What on earth is happening in Poland?

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IN THE RUN-UP to Poland's election in October 2023 Donald Tusk, the leader of the country's centre-right bloc, said that if he regained power he would need just 24 hours to begin restoring democracy. After the vote Mr Tusk, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2014, formed a coalition that drove the populist incumbents, the Law and Justice party (PiS), from power.

On December 13th Mr Tusk was inaugurated and his government got straight to work. But in doing so it has picked fights with the courts and the president, Andrzej Duda, an ally of the ousted government. PiS accuses Mr Tusk of trampling the constitution. Legal experts have also questioned the new prime minister's tactics. Rival interpretations of the law have divided public institutions. This fight is a test of how easily a centrist government can restore norms that have been bulldozed by a populist one. How is it going?