成千上万波兰民众抗议政府司法改革

More protests against a new judiciary law are expected across Poland Wednesday as thousands march against what they say is the right-wing government's plans to take over the courts.

Thousands waving Polish and European Union flags and shouting slogans demanding free courts demonstrated in Warsaw and other Polish cities Tuesday.

Under a new law that lowers the mandatory retirement age for justices, more than a third of Supreme Court justices will be forced into retirement Wednesday. They include Supreme Court President Malgorzata Gersdorf, a strong critic of the ruling conservative Law and Justice party. She calls it a "purge conducted in the Supreme Court ... under the pretext of the retrospective change in retirement age."

Nobel Prize-winning Solidarity founder Lech Walesa said he will be among those marching Wednesday, saying he is ready to "lead a physical removal of the main perpetrator of all misfortune" -- a reference to Law and Justice party chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Walesa did not elaborate on what he meant by "physical removal."

The government says changes to the judiciary are necessary, saying many of the rules date back to the days of communism.