The Polish Constitutional Tribunal considered today the competency dispute among the president, the Sejm, and the Supreme Court, and… made no decision. At a special session of the Tribunal no representative of the Supreme Court appeared. The Supreme Court’s first president, Małgorzata Gersdorf, did send a letter to the Tribunal in which she questioned its ability to fulfil its duties.
Despite the discussions in the Tribunal lasting several hours, the dispute was not resolved. No representative of the Supreme Court appeared at the special session of the Constitutional Tribunal, called for by the Speaker of the Sejm, Elżbieta Witek.
“In the name of the Supreme Court, I declare that the Constitutional Tribunal, in its current state, lost the ability to objectively perform its function, given to it by the legislative power”, wrote Gersdorf in her letter.
The president of the Tribunal, Julia Przyłębska had this to say about the words of prof. Gersdorf:
“The first president of the Supreme Court is using the language of everyday, media debate in the courtrooms. I believe that this is a grave violation in terms of her position and in the context of people working in the justice system”.
Politicians of the opposition don’t see anything inappropriate in the words of the first president of the Supreme Court, even though she was de facto undermining the entire constitutional order in the country.
The Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, responded to the words of Małgorzata Gersdorf by saying that she behaves like a politician. Other members of the ruling party commented on the matter in a similar fashion. Meanwhile, the term of office of Ms. Gersdorf ends at the end of April. The Constitutional Tribunal postponed the session until March 12.