“I am refusing the nomination of 46 judges. This is not just a verbal signal, but a concrete decision not to grant nominations. I will also not promote those judges who question the constitutional and legal order of the Republic – those judges who listen to the bad advice of the Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, who encourages judges to challenge the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Poland,” announced President Karol Nawrocki.
The President refuses judicial nominations
Members of the December 13 coalition, led by Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, have long questioned the status of judges appointed after 2017. President Karol Nawrocki made a statement today announcing concrete action. Appointing judges is a constitutional prerogative of the president. “Every judge nominated by my predecessors over the years is a judge of the Republic of Poland. This discussion about ‘neo-judges’ and ‘paleo-judges,’ which lies outside the constitutional and legal order, has so far only destroyed the structure of the Polish state. It now also affects the lives of ordinary people. A tragedy occurred in Kołobrzeg. A brutal murderer was not convicted because some judges questioned the status of others, even though all had been nominated by the President of the Republic. It was impossible to effectively convict a pedophile who raped a 14-year-old girl, and this girl and her family will once again have to endure the trauma of a court trial, because the judges were not doing what they are supposed to do – issue judgments effectively – but were instead debating whether their colleagues were ‘neo-’ or ‘paleo-judges’,” declared the president.
He recalled that “according to the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal from 2012, the President of the Republic appoints judges, but also has the right to refuse nominations”, adding that today he was exercising that right.
“I am refusing the nomination of 46 judges. This is not just a verbal signal, but a concrete decision not to grant nominations. I will also not promote those judges who question the constitutional and legal order of the Republic – those judges who listen to the bad advice of the Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, who encourages judges to challenge the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Poland,” said the president, emphasizing that he is “honest in fulfilling this declaration.”
“On August 6, when I was sworn in, I first gave a verbal message about how I would act in these matters. I said clearly that for the next five years, judges who question the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Poland cannot count on promotion, if it depends on the president, or on a judicial nomination. Those were words. Three months have passed since my words and my warning to judges not to fall for the madness being spread by the Minister of Justice. Today, these are no longer just words, but concrete decisions. We are returning judicial nominations. There will be no consent for the next five years. No judge who questions the constitutional powers of the President of the Republic, the Polish Constitution, and the Polish legal system can count on a nomination,” he stated.
Żurek’s “Rule of Law” Act
In early October, Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek presented the draft of the so-called Rule of Law Act (ustawa praworządnościowa). Prepared by the Codification Commission under the leadership of Krystian Markiewicz from Iustitia, the document is intended, according to its authors, to reform the judiciary and eliminate what the ruling coalition describes as the “problem of neo-judges.” The Ombudsman (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich) also expressed criticism of the proposal.