Allegations of an attack on a constitutional body, abuse of power, and usurpation of judicial functions — we have obtained the full text of a notification submitted by the Law and Justice (PiS) parliamentary club to the prosecutor’s office following the controversial “swearing-in” of Constitutional Tribunal judges in the Sejm. The document accuses not only Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty and the head of the Sejm Chancellery, but also four judges. The authors state bluntly: on April 9, an act of “institutional violence” took place and marked another stage of an ongoing coup d’état.
According to the notification, Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty, the head of the Sejm Chancellery Marek Siwiec, and four judges — Krystian Markiewicz, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Marcin Dziurda, and Maciej Taborowski — are alleged to have committed criminal offenses.
Czarzasty — as a public official — is said to have exceeded his authority by “undertaking unlawful actions of an institutional violence nature, aimed at illegally organizing, in the plenary hall of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, an act unknown to the Polish legal system — the ‘swearing-in’ of four candidates for judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, bypassing the President of the Republic of Poland, which bears the hallmarks of an attack on a constitutional body of the Republic of Poland through unlawful influence on the official activities of a constitutional authority.”
According to the complainants, this constitutes the elements of a prohibited act defined in Article 231 §2 of the Penal Code in conjunction with Article 128 §3 and Article 11 §2. Similar allegations are raised against Siwiec, though in his case they relate to violations of responsibilities in the organizational, legal, and technical operation of the Sejm.
The judges are accused of exerting institutional pressure on a constitutional body and attempting to assume public office without taking the oath before the President, thereby “usurping the function and title of a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal.”
As the authors point out, on April 9 at 1:30 p.m. in the plenary hall of the Sejm, “an act unknown to the Polish legal system took place — the swearing-in of four candidates for judges of the Constitutional Tribunal — Krystian Markiewicz, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Maciej Taborowski, and Marcin Dziurda — carried out without the participation of the President of the Republic of Poland, who holds exclusive competence to receive such an oath.”
Although the Sejm Chancellery places responsibility for organizing the event on the judges themselves, the authors argue that the role of organizer should also be attributed to the Speaker of the Sejm, as the host of the building who made the space available, as well as to the head of the Chancellery, who is responsible for the Sejm’s organizational, legal, and technical operations.
PiS MPs emphasize that taking the oath before the President is not merely ceremonial. They recall the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment of December 3, 2015 (case K 34/15), which established that the oath is the final step in the appointment process and produces legal effects, remaining an exclusive presidential prerogative.
“In the face of an attempt by the Speaker of the Sejm to receive the oath from four individuals elected on March 13, 2026, who have not taken the oath before the President, we are dealing with an act that profoundly destabilizes the legal order. Media reports speak of a ‘planned attack on the Constitutional Tribunal,’ which the public perceives clearly as a lack of respect for the law. We are witnessing legislative and executive authorities usurping competences reserved for other branches. This raises a fundamental question as to whether resorting to totalitarian methods that destabilize the constitutional order is compatible with democratic standards. The answer can only be one — no. These actions serve only short-term political interests, disregarding the rule of law,” the justification states.
Speaker’s personal interests
The document goes further, making additional strong claims.
“Any attempt by the Speaker of the Sejm or another legislative body to receive the oath constitutes a blatant violation of the competences of the Head of State. These actions lack legal basis and destabilize the legal order of our country. They are driven solely by the personal interests and ambitions of the Speaker, who has openly expressed his lack of sympathy toward the President of the Republic of Poland. Can personal animosities justify breaking the law? This question should be purely rhetorical — yet we see that the personal interests of the ‘second person in the state’ are contributing to the destabilization of Poland’s legal order.”
The authors also cite Article 231 §1 of the Penal Code, which states that a public official who exceeds their powers or fails to fulfill duties to the detriment of public or private interest is subject to imprisonment of up to three years.
Under Article 115 §13(2) of the Penal Code, the Speaker of the Sejm is classified as a public official. The authors note that judges Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and Krystian Markiewicz are also public officials and, as active judges and legal authorities, bear a particular obligation to uphold the law.
They conclude that there is a justified suspicion of abuse of power and breach of public trust by Czarzasty and Siwiec, “as a result of exceeding their authority and acting to the detriment of the public interest.”
Moreover, PiS MPs argue that there is a strong suspicion that Speaker Czarzasty acted with the intent of obtaining personal or material benefit, fulfilling the criteria of an offense under Article 231 §2 of the Penal Code.
“The benefit in question — in this case personal — derived from a sense of power and agency, is directly linked to the matter, as Speaker Czarzasty has declared strong hostility toward the President. His actions appear driven by motives of political or professional retaliation. Furthermore, the candidates elected on March 13 for the position of Constitutional Tribunal judges enjoyed the support of Czarzasty and his political camp,” the document states.
“Another stage of a coup d’état”
The notification, as the authors add, concerns the possible commission of a crime “aimed at altering the constitutional system of the Republic of Poland and influencing the functioning or cessation of activities of the Constitutional Tribunal and other constitutional bodies.”
“The act of ‘swearing-in’ carried out without the participation of the President constitutes another operational step in the ongoing coup d’état in Poland, aimed at forcibly taking control of the Constitutional Tribunal and eliminating the presidential check on unconstitutional actions of the parliamentary majority,” the authors conclude.