I am not an expert in Polish politics, but I've watched the case closely for several years due to my research interests. For deeper context, look here (or at pretty much anything else Anne Applebaum has written about the case) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Boiled down to the core, a government led by PiS and Jarosław Kaczyński has slowly dismantled democratic institutions during the past eight years. Polish democracy is not dead, but it is severely injured - and government re-election could signal the beginning of the end.