“The rule of law cannot be restored or restored through unlawful methods, violating the Constitution, rejecting its provisions, circumventing the President and weakening his participation in public life,” said Prof. Genowefa Grabowska, expert in international and European law.
wPolityce.pl: After the meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, President Andrzej Duda stated that one of the topics of the conversation was the case of Ministers Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik. The head of state appealed to the head of government to have Justice Minister Adam Bodnar comply with the request to release the PiS parliamentarians for the duration of the pardon procedure. How do you assess Adam Bodnar’s recent actions, including ignoring the President’s decisions, appeals and prerogatives?
Prof. Genowefa Grabowska: This is politics, this is not a right, because it is not about good or bad application of the law, but about the political interest that the current government wants to pursue.
They just want to be effective Despite the applicable law, and that does not end well. If you want to achieve the intended goal, you must act within limits and respect the law. This was lacking and I am primarily talking about the case of the Public Prosecution Service, but a similar situation can be observed in the case of the release of detained, or rather, imprisoned Members of Parliament.
In this case, the President’s prerogative was ignored – indeed it is written very generally in the Constitution – but if the President grants a single pardon, with respect to the Head of State and the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, this provision must be respected. even though it is very general and therefore imperfect.
And if there is any doubt about its wording, efforts are being made to amend this provision. And since this is a constitutional provision and changing the constitution is very difficult, we will not seal this law in any other way.
This will not happen through resolutions of the Sejm, as they tried to tell us. No interpretation will do this because it cannot limit or strengthen the president’s constitutional prerogative, which clearly states that the president has the right to pardon. Therefore, after the President has applied the law of pardon, there should be no further proceedings, no trial, no conviction in the same case. This case is closed res judicatait is arranged!
Moreover, Minister A. Bodnar, who knows the law and was also Commissioner for Human Rights, should also think about the rights of those sent to prison. Both about the rights of MPs Kamiński and Wąsik as parliamentarians, and about their rights as people who are wrongfully imprisoned.
When it comes to the rights of wrongfully imprisoned people, we heard last week at a press conference from Deputy Minister Bodnar in the context of the hunger protest that “everyone has the right not to eat or drink.”
I find it hard to comment on this because it’s pathetic. It is inappropriate for any government official, especially one of such high rank – and ex officio responsible for the fate of imprisoned people – to adopt such a mindset and show such indifference to their health and life. Let me put it in human terms: you can’t do that!
Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated in his statement that Adam Bodnar, who does not belong to any party, is “by nature independent” and that it will therefore not be necessary to separate the functions of the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General. But do the actions of the current head of the Justice Department in both positions he currently holds really demonstrate his independence?
The separation of these two functions in Poland has a very short, albeit turbulent, history! The first and so far only Attorney General, separate from the Minister of Justice, was Mr Andrzej Seremet (2010-2016). However, as a result of, among other things, the investigations into the Smolensk disaster, the Amber Gold scandal, or the so-called wiretapping scandal, it was decided that this structure did not work and in 2016 the functions were combined again.
At the moment, we see that the combination of these functions is again being criticized because it does not bring with it the effect of independence of action, which would have to be demonstrated by the Attorney General, for example before the head of government. After all, yesterday the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General publicly stated that “the decision to dismiss the National Prosecutor is the decision of the Prime Minister.”
As you can see, this government lacks internal communication when it comes to statements like this. This happens when actions are subordinated to political objectives. In such a case the law only stands in the way, but it must show the way and help.
What could Secretary Adam Bodnar’s actions lead to in the long term? Is it really intended to ‘fix’ the rule of law, or to achieve the exact opposite?
Everyone can judge for themselves whether the country is calmer or more tense. If the rule of law were respected, we would not have such busy social protests in its defense or demonstrations in front of prisons where former ministers and also members of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland are imprisoned.
My main point, however, is that the rule of law cannot be restored or restored through unlawful methods, violating the Constitution, rejecting its provisions, circumventing the President and attempting to weaken his participation in public life.
This is the wrong way. This does not restore the rule of law.
So when it comes to justice, doesn’t the end justify the means?
Absolutely not!
Thank you very much for the interview.
Source: wPolityce