Poland: Former court presidents support Donald Tusk

Poland is arguing about the composition of the Constitutional Court. Four former presidents of the Court have now supported the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. President Karol Nawrocki's actions, on the other hand, are an "unprecedented violation of the court's autonomy" and do not contribute to resolving the conflict, the four lawyers wrote in a jointly published statement.

"The judges lawfully appointed to the Constitutional Court by Parliament have taken the necessary measures to restore the functions and status of this state institution, which is crucial for the rule of law and for the protection of civil rights and freedoms," the letter says. The authors are the former Constitutional Court Presidents Marek Safjan, Jerzy Stepien, Bohdan Zdziennicki and Andrzej Zoll.

The long-simmering power struggle between the two major political camps over the appointment of the Constitutional Court escalated on Friday. The trigger was an announcement on the Constitutional Court website. It said that the previous President Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy had been temporarily relieved of their functions. Instead, judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska will lead the court.

In a video published by a constitutional judge on social media, the former amateur boxer Nawrocki could be seen forcing his way into the courthouse with robust physical exertion. He also pushed a judge down. Tusk strongly criticized the behavior.

Nawrocki refuses to swear in new judges

The right-wing conservative PiS, which ruled the country from 2015 to 2023, has filled the court with judges who are politically close to it. Since the change of government in autumn 2023, Tusk's center-left coalition has been trying to fill vacant positions for constitutional judges.

The lawyer Korwin-Piotrowska is one of the five new constitutional judges who were nominated by parliament but are still unable to take up their work. The right-wing conservative President Nawrocki refused to swear her in. And Constitutional Court President Bogdan Swieczkowski denied them access to the building.

“The Constitutional Court has been in a deep crisis for over ten years,” says the statement from the four former court presidents. The judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), which would have required the restoration of the function of the Constitutional Court as an independent and impartial institution, would not be implemented. "As long as this does not happen, citizens are deprived of an effective defense of their rights and freedoms and cannot lodge an individual constitutional complaint."