“The Sejm resolutions will confirm the factual situation in the Constitutional Tribunal, that is, there are three dual judges who should not be sworn in by the president,” reveals the head of the Left Club, Anna Maria Żukowska. However, Senate President Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska remains more reserved, announcing only that “this week there are announcements on the adoption of resolutions on the Constitutional Tribunal by the Sejm.” According to her, such an action would be “just a step towards restoring the rule of law in Poland.” However, the Constitution does not provide for the possibility of early dismissal of judges of the Constitutional Court. Moreover, the working methods of the Constitutional Court and the election of judges are determined by law, and not by a resolution.
Donald Tusk’s government and the parliamentary majority are planning an attack on the Constitutional Court. By means of parliamentary resolutions they want to remove the judges of the Constitutional Court legally appointed by the president. The head of the left club was asked about this issue in the first program of Polish radio. She stressed that the Sejm resolutions will confirm the facts in the Constitutional Tribunal “that there are three dual judges who should not be sworn in by the president because three previously selected judges were waiting in line.”
I think it will be included in this resolution, even though there is no project yet and no schedule for the Sejm yet.
– added Żukowska.
When asked what if the Sejm’s resolutions on the Constitutional Tribunal would intensify the conflict between the government and the president, Żukowska indicated that it was about restoring the rule of law in Poland.
Art. is binding on us. 7 of the Treaty on EU on possible sanctions related to violations of the rule of law. Relations with the President have not been good for years, which I regret and regret, but the President makes certain, and not others, sovereign decisions that undoubtedly influence this.
– said the New Left MP.
Kidawa-Błońska on the Sejm resolutions on the Constitutional Court
The President of the Senate also referred to plans for the Sejm to adopt resolutions on the Constitutional Court in an interview with Radio ZET on Monday. She was asked whether the government would stage a “coup” during President Andrzej Duda’s visit to Africa this week, as PiS claims, by dismissing five judges of the Constitutional Tribunal by resolution. Kidawa-Błońska responded that this action would have nothing to do with a coup d’état and would only be another step towards restoring the rule of law in Poland.
We do not commit coups
– she answered.
If President Duda had been guided by the Polish Constitution for the past eight years, we would not be in this situation today. Everything must be put in order, because everything starts with the rule of law. Poles should know that such an important institution as the Constitutional Court operates in accordance with the Constitution and Polish law
– said Kidawa-Błońska.
Will the December 13 coalition itself respect the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, to which the Marshal of the Senate refers? Under the Constitution, changes to the Constitutional Tribunal system cannot be amended by resolution, nor can the terms of the Tribunal’s judges be shortened. Then why is Tusk’s government planning to adopt a resolution on this issue?
Will the Sejm majority dismiss the Constitutional Court judges?
The Marshal of the Senate also noted in Radio ZET that Poland is obliged to comply with EU law.
Our judicial decisions cannot create doubt, because there was ‘double judge’
– she assessed.
Asked whether the decision on the Constitutional Court judges would be made this week, Kidawa-Błońska replied: “There are such announcements, but as far as I know the resolution has not yet been submitted to the Sejm. We’ll also see what the discussion will look like. “We cannot wait and tolerate our system not working.”
“Gazeta Wyborcza” reported that the ruling coalition wants to focus on issues related to the Constitutional Court during the next session of the Sejm. According to the newspaper, the Sejm through resolutions can, among other things, state the following: flawed choice: Mariusz Muszyński, Jarosław Wyrembak and Justyn Piskorski.
On October 8, 2015, the seventh-term Sejm – mainly with the votes of the then PO-PSL coalition – elected five new judges: Roman Hauser, Krzysztof Ślebzak, Andrzej Jakubecki, Bronisław Sitek and Andrzej Sokala, who would become the judges. the successors of the three judges who ended their terms of office on November 6, and two judges whose terms of office expired in December, i.e. during the next term.
On November 25 of that year, the Sejm of the new, eighth term adopted the resolutions proposed by PiS, declaring that the election of the judges of the Constitutional Tribunal of October 8 no longer had any legal force. On December 2, the Sejm elected Julia Przyłębska, Piotr Pszczółkowski, Henryk Cioch, Lech Morawski and Mariusz Muszyński, nominated by PiS, as judges of the Constitutional Court. The last three were successors to judges whose terms expired in November. These judges were sworn in by President Duda.
On December 3, 2015, the Constitutional Court ruled that the previous Sejm of the 7th term had elected two Constitutional Court judges in a manner contrary to the Constitution (instead of those whose terms expired in December); the election of the remaining three (to replace those whose terms expired in November) was consistent with this. The Constitutional Court also ruled that the president was obliged to “immediately” administer the oath of office of any newly elected judge.
After the last elections – in mid-November 2023 – the then president of the KO Club, Borys Budka, said that the election of three judges of the Constitutional Court should be declared invalid. Mentioned in this context are judges Mariusz Muszyński, Justyn Piskorski and Jarosław Wyrembak, who were later elected to replace the deceased Henryk Cioch and Lech Morawski.
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PAP/wPolityce.pl
Source: wPolityce