The Constitutional Tribunal not so frightening anymore? Coalition politician on “filling vacancies”

According to Wednesday’s issue of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the process of nominating candidates for vacant judicial positions in the Constitutional Tribunal will continue until November 5 and 20. The paper also reports that the December 13 coalition has changed its approach to matters concerning the Tribunal. Or has it?

In an interview with the newspaper, chairman of the Polska 2050 Party Paweł Śliz admitted that Speaker of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia has already sent information to the heads of parliamentary clubs regarding the deadlines for submitting candidates for individual positions.

At present, four of the fifteen seats in the Constitutional Tribunal remain unfilled. In December, two more – following the departures of Krystyna Pawłowicz and Michał Warciński – are expected to become vacant, and two additional seats will open next year.

Specific deadlines have been set

According to the newspaper’s findings, the deadline for submitting candidates for Pawłowicz’s seat will expire on November 5, while the deadline for Warciński’s seat and the previously vacated positions will fall on November 20. DGP notes a shift in Donald Tusk’s team’s strategy regarding the Tribunal. Although the original plan of the October 15 Coalition envisioned a comprehensive reform of the body following a potential victory by Rafał Trzaskowski in the presidential election, Karol Nawrocki’s triumph disrupted those plans, the paper writes. Hence the idea to “heal” the Tribunal by filling its vacancies.

The opposition, however, disputes this solution. Paweł Jabłoński, a member of the Sejm Justice Committee from Law and Justice (PiS), told DGP that such a move would represent “an unprecedented constitutional problem.” He emphasized that the drafters of the constitution did not foresee a scenario in which the Sejm, by failing to appoint judges for an extended period, would allow vacancies to accumulate.