“This is a mockery of the state, a violation of the constitution, an act of rebellion. It is also an attack on one of the most important constitutional bodies tasked with safeguarding the cohesion of our system and democracy. This is an unprecedented undertaking that proves the authorities will stop at nothing. In my view, this is a coup d’état,” said Judge Piotr Schab, the lawful Disciplinary Spokesperson for Judges of Ordinary Courts, on TV Republika, referring to the announced pseudo-swearing-in of Constitutional Tribunal judges scheduled for tomorrow in the Sejm.
Pseudo-swearing-in of Constitutional Tribunal judges
Four judges of the Constitutional Tribunal elected in March sent letters to President Karol Nawrocki, inviting him to the Sejm at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday in order to take their oaths before him. If the oath-taking were to take place in the parliament building without the president present, it would constitute a constitutional coup.
So far, President Karol Nawrocki has received oaths from two of the six judges elected on March 13 by the Sejm – Dariusz Szostek and Magdalena Bentkowska. Explaining why the president accepted oaths from only two judges, the head of the Chancellery of the President, Zbigniew Bogucki, indicated that during Nawrocki’s term, two vacancies had arisen in the Constitutional Tribunal, and administering oaths to two individuals would “fulfill the statutory requirement” of a full bench of 11 members.
Judge Piotr Schab, the lawful Disciplinary Spokesperson for Judges of Ordinary Courts, also commented on the planned pseudo-swearing-in of judges and the “assault” on the Constitutional Tribunal on TV Republika. He emphasized that, in his opinion, it is “a mockery of the state, a violation of the constitution, an act of rebellion. It is also an attack on one of the most important constitutional bodies tasked with safeguarding the cohesion of our system and democracy.”
“This is an unprecedented undertaking that proves the authorities will stop at nothing. In my view, this is a coup d’état. One can outline any scenario, including one involving the brutal use of force, as has already happened twice at the headquarters of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS). The question arises: what will happen next? That is, will the police, who might take matters concerning the Constitutional Tribunal into their own hands and begin shaping the composition of adjudicating panels, also take over the management of case registers, the assignment of cases to judges, and decide on the members of the Tribunal’s adjudicating panels? If not, this means that the authorities have no concept of resolving the problem they themselves have created,”
Judge Schab stated.
The lawful Disciplinary Spokesperson for Judges of Ordinary Courts also spoke about serious doubts regarding the four judges elected in March who are to take the pseudo-oath tomorrow.
“There are numerous doubts. The appointment of six individuals to the positions of Constitutional Tribunal judges in blatant violation of Article 30 of the Sejm’s rules of procedure was intended to intensify political influence over an institution whose constitutional role is to guarantee the rule of law in Poland. We are dealing with an action of a clearly political nature, with evident violations of all procedural rules regarding the sequence of events. Both the nomination of candidates and the voting on those candidates were violated in order to achieve a clearly defined political objective. Attempting to combine the office of a Constitutional Tribunal judge with that of a judge of an ordinary court would clearly be contrary to the constitution,”
he assessed.