Maltese MEP Alfred Sant has said "he was not convinced that when the European Parliament seeks to censure the actions of governments of member states, it is following comparable methods of assessment and applying principles to situations in a transparent and fair manner."
Dr Sant made an explanation of vote when he voted in favour of a resolution passed by 513 votes to 142 with 30 abstentions voicing concern that the "paralysis of Poland's Constitutional Court is endangering democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law."
Dr Sant said that in most situations of national crisis and controversy, especially in polarised democracies, the partisan clash of political formations can be huge and intimately influenced by the subterranean strategies being followed by vested interests.
"Assessing rights and wrongs in such situations can be extremely difficult even for objective observers within the national context (should they exist). Doing so from within this Parliament is even more complex and liable to error. Our deliberations here are also subject — though we may try to believe otherwise — to political calculations and manipulations, extraneous to the national situation about which we try to reach a judgement."
Dr Sant said that frankly in the case of Poland, though ideologically he disagrees with the approaches and beliefs of its present government, he doubts whether sufficient weight has been given to the anti-democratic distortions of the previous government which have led to what one could call the "over" reactions of the present one.