“These will not be judges; they will be anti-judges. And why? Because even before they became judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, they are telling you, telling me, telling the public, telling Poles: ‘we will not comply with the law, because we will not adhere to Article 4(1) of the Act on the status of judges of the Constitutional Tribunal,’” said Zbigniew Bogucki, Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, on Polsat News, referring to tomorrow’s event in the Sejm.
The four judges of the Constitutional Tribunal elected in March (Krystian Markiewicz, Maciej Taborowski, Marcin Dziurda, and Anna Korwin-Piotrowska) sent letters to President Karol Nawrocki inviting him to the Sejm at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday in order to take their oaths before him. If the oath were to take place in the parliament building without the President present, this would amount, plainly speaking, to a constitutional coup.
Speaking today on Polsat News, Zbigniew Bogucki, Head of the Presidential Chancellery, when asked where the President would be at 12:30 p.m., replied that he did not know, adding that he himself would meet with Karol Nawrocki in the afternoon.
He described the announced event in the Sejm as “absurd.”
“We have a legal order, Article 7 of the Constitution, this is the principle of legality and the rule of law. Those who have spoken so much about the rule of law now want to carry out some actions tomorrow that are not an oath,”
Bogucki assessed.
He emphasized that “this farce” has no legal basis.
When asked whether it would constitute a crime, the Head of the Presidential Chancellery responded:
“I do not know whether it will be a crime; it will be a violation. I do not know what it will look like, whether they will take an oath before the Marshal of the Sejm, before columns or walls, but not before the President. These will not be judges; they will be anti-judges. And why? Because even before they became judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, they are telling you, telling me, telling the public, telling Poles: ‘we will not comply with the law, because we will not adhere to Article 4(1) of the Act on the status of judges of the Constitutional Tribunal.’”
Bogucki pointed out that although it is often argued that “the composition of the Tribunal needed to be filled quickly,” the judges who took their oath on April 1, despite their obligation, have not yet reported for duty at the Tribunal.
The host noted that they are expected to appear together with the other four judges elected by the Sejm in March.
“This raises the question of whether these judges are independent or whether they are playing on a political team. A judge is not meant for team play,”
replied the Head of the Presidential Chancellery.