There is no sign that Solidarna Polska plans to depart from the United Right government and coalition, according to Prime Minister Michał Wójcik. He spoke on Tuesday about the draft amendment to the Supreme Court law and highlighted sovereignty as the nonnegotiable red line in any talks.
READ ALSO: RESEARCH. A clear majority of Poles want a compromise with the European Commission. How do United Right voters view ongoing settlement discussions?
Why should we leave, there are no reasons to exit the United Right government and coalition, said Wójcik on TVN24 when asked about the dispute within the ruling camp over the PiS draft amendment to the Supreme Court law.
Nevertheless, he emphasized that the group places sovereignty issues at the forefront and this remains a unifying thread in every debate.
When pressed about whether the draft amendment to the Supreme Court law, negotiated with Brussels by EU Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk, would not cross that red line if adopted, Wójcik called it chaos, anarchy, and the ruin of the state, stressing that encroaching on the independence of judges by the judiciary itself is dangerous.
Asked to imagine a scenario where Solidarna Polska would leave the government and the United Right if PiS pushes the bill through the Sejm bypassing SP votes, he admitted such a possibility but said the draft should be blocked in its current form and removed from the Sejm agenda.
“This is an attack on Poland”
He noted that before the bill was introduced by PiS deputies, ministers met informally, with Solidarna Polska registering constitutional concerns about weakening the status of judges.
“The old questions about judges meet the new ones,” he added, underscoring that this interplay has produced millions of sentences across the judicial system.
He underscored that Solidarna Polska has always refused to sign such a project. In appeals courts, roughly 35 percent of judgments are issued by judges named to the National Court Register after 2018, while in district courts the share stands at about 28 percent, and in another category of district courts around 21 percent. He mentioned that millions of judgments are involved in district courts alone.
This is an attack on Poland, he stated again.
According to Wójcik, the bill had become an orphaned and nearly dead project. He argued that the only viable alternative to the current United Right coalition would be a government led by Donald Tusk with Ursula von der Leyen backing him, a combination he sees as unfavorable for Poland.
He asserted that Solidarna Polska operates as an independent group and that there is no current sense of a prime ministerial scenario forming.
Draft amendment to Supreme Court law
Parliamentarians from Law and Justice submitted a draft amendment to the Supreme Court law to the Sejm, described as a major milestone in the KPO case. The proposal would have the Supreme Administrative Court decide disciplinary and immunity cases involving judges, rather than the Chamber of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court as at present. It would also expand the accepted criteria for judging a judge’s independence and impartiality, allowing the court itself to initiate such reviews ex officio as well as upon a litigant’s request. The draft further tightens the exam framework during the test, starting with the appointment of a judge according to the law.
Recently President Andrzej Duda stated that he did not participate in drafting the amendment nor was he consulted. He urged calm and constructive parliamentary work on the bill and stressed that he would not agree to solutions undermining the constitutional order or to any act that would compromise judicial appointments or permit their reassessment.
The bill was initially slated for Sejm consideration before Christmas but was not advanced in the chamber. Preparations for two legislative streams were announced, one presidential and one government driven.
READ ALSO:
– Michał Woś: Solidarna Polska will not support the amendment of the Supreme Court law in its current form. This is a project written in umlauts, not Polish
– Minister Ziobro: The PiS president’s opinion on the draft amendments to the Supreme Court law reveals concern for the Polish state. The European Commission is acting in bad faith
mm/PAP
Source: wPolityce