During Friday’s session of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the Council’s Chair, Judge Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, decided to find out how Council members participating remotely were actually working. At a certain point, right after the vote, she announced: “Turn on your cameras!”
On the broadcast, one can see the images of some participants appearing in a sidebar on the right. But not everyone turned theirs on.
“Why do you want to see me?” asked MP Jarosław Urbaniak (Civic Platform), not turning on his camera. Pawełczyk-Woicka replied that she wanted to confirm it was indeed him who had voted. She recognized him by his voice and noted it in the record. Meanwhile, Senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski neither spoke nor revealed himself.
“The work of some parliamentarians on the NCJ, unfortunately, boils down to logging in remotely and taking part in just a few votes. Besides their tirades on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)—which they really do not understand—this is what it looks like,”
wrote the NCJ Chair on X.com, posting a recording.
It’s worth noting that some politician-members of the NCJ have regarded—or even still regard—the Council itself as illegal, yet that does not stop them from collecting remuneration for their participation in it.