Dear Judges,

Esteemed Participants,

Jorge Luís Borges, the Argentinian genius, once said that „perhaps universal history is the history of a few metaphors.”

In this context, speaking to all of you fellow judges and supporters of Rule of Law, among equals and friends, allow me to share some personal stories, memories of the March of 1000 Robes, metaphors of the essential values we stubbornly, as some will accuse us, defend, no matter what.
During the March, walking in the crowded streets of Warsaw, surrounded by judges from dozens of European countries, a Polish common citizen, an old woman, tears in her eyes, with an unforgettable dignified posture, voiced me some words in Polish impossible for me to understand besides one, repeated: “dziekuję”, thank you, thank you.

A kind Polish colleague explained me that she was expressing gratitude for our solidarity to the persecuted independent judges and prosecutors in her country. The same attitude was repeatedly shown during the day by many other citizens, marching along with us, foreign judges.

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