“He’s showing his true face” – with these words, MP Krzysztof Szczucki summed up Minister Waldemar Żurek’s Friday visit to the Supreme Court in an interview with Niezależna.pl. According to the interlocutor, the minister “doesn’t want to fix or heal anything at all,” but rather wants “people like him to decide the most important matters in the justice system.”
Żurek opts for confrontation
Entrusting the helm of the Ministry of Justice to Waldemar Żurek was supposed to give a refreshing political impulse to the governing coalition, which in the eyes of many voters had been discredited by its lack of effectiveness. In the face of dozens of unfulfilled campaign promises, it was also meant to rekindle in the most fanatical anti-PiS electorate the hope of holding predecessors to account, something that, despite considerable determination and the extreme politicization of the prosecution service and security services, had been progressing rather sluggishly. True, there have been arrests, detentions, and interrogations of the coalition’s political “enemies” broadcast by nationwide media on December 13 (let us recall that after one such interrogation, a witness died), but all this has been too little for bloodthirsty voters under the banner of “Silni Razem” (“Strong Together”).
Replacing the worn-out and, from the standpoint of “militant democracy,” ineffective Bodnar, Żurek, who makes no secret of his anti-PiS zeal, was thus expected to show a new quality and determination. It was expected that he would do everything Bodnar had delayed for too long.
The last few days have indeed shown that he is capable of quite a lot. And working with the equally determined prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek and media friendly to him, he is able to build a coherent narrative of ruthless reckonings which, as he claims, are to lead to the restoration of the rule of law.
By a regulation of September 29, Żurek introduced changes to the Rules of Procedure for Common Courts, allowing, contrary to the applicable statute, the appointment of judges bypassing the random assignment system. Another radical move by the new minister was to present a draft so-called “rule-of-law” act, which is to, among other things, abolish the Supreme Court’s Chamber of Extraordinary Control, remove many Supreme Court judges from office, and send the remaining judges appointed after 2018 back to their previous courts and possibly subject them to a renewed competitive selection procedure with the participation of a new National Council of the Judiciary (KRS).
Both of Żurek’s initiatives are doomed to fail because the regulation amending the rules for the operation of the courts, being contrary to the statute, is unlikely to survive review by the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), and the “rule-of-law” act will probably be vetoed by the president.
In the face of these two very likely defeats, Żurek therefore opted for a happening and a provocation, organizing on Friday, with the participation of the council of lay judges, a press conference at the Supreme Court. The appearance by the minister of justice was interrupted by former Supreme Court spokesman Judge Aleksander Stępkowski, who called it “a brutal intrusion and a violation of autonomy.”
Violation of the separation of powers
The portal Niezależna.pl asked PiS MP and former head of the Government Legislation Centre, Prof. Krzysztof Szczucki, about Minister Żurek’s controversial actions, including his Friday happening at the Supreme Court.
The interlocutor assessed that the minister’s press conference was “not only a breach of good manners, but in fact of the separation of powers and the principles of decent cooperation between state organs.”
“The Supreme Court is part of the judiciary, that is, independent of the executive, and in no respect is it subordinate to Minister Żurek. The only person authorized and empowered to have contact with the government and the Minister of Justice is the First President of the Supreme Court. She did not invite Mr. Żurek to the court building; he was invited by the council of lay judges, which is not authorized to conduct relations between the court and other organs of the state,”
the politician pointed out.
Intimidating judges
He stressed that, in his opinion, “there has been a violation of various procedures and of constitutional-institutional propriety,” and he referred to the conduct of the members of the Supreme Court’s council of lay judges, who are said to have invited Żurek. “The lay judges at the Supreme Court, elected by the Senate, turn out in fact to be political activists rather than people who want to perform their duties as lay judges, and they should be removed by the Senate as soon as possible. But apparently the governing majority, as we can see, wants chaos to reign in the Supreme Court,” he explained.
Asked about the objective that might have guided the minister of justice, he admitted bluntly:
“He wants to intimidate judges; he wants to create a state of uncertainty among them. He thinks that in this way he will cause them to give up performing their duties themselves, that only his supporters will remain, but of course he is gravely mistaken.”
“Prof. Stępkowski showed conduct worthy of a Supreme Court judge. He defended the law, he defended procedures, he defended decency. And I think other judges will behave the same way. And Żurek is showing his true face. He doesn’t want to fix anything or heal anything; he only wants people like him to decide the most important matters in the justice system,”
Krzysztof Szczucki concluded.