“We have a plan of action in case the president wants to break the constitution. I promise you that if in a week the president does not take the steps he is constitutionally obliged to take, we will show everyone what Plan B is,” Waldemar Żurek, the head of the justice ministry, reportedly announced in the context of the Constitutional Tribunal.
On Friday, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland adopted a resolution by majority vote concerning measures “necessary to ensure that the Constitutional Tribunal meets the requirements of a court established by law, independent and impartial.”
On the same day, the Sejm elected six people to vacant judicial posts in the Constitutional Tribunal with the votes of the ruling coalition. The first vacancies appeared in December 2024, with additional ones in April and December 2025.
According to the law, the judges should be sworn in by the president. It remains unclear whether and when Karol Nawrocki will administer the oath to the six candidates indicated by the Sejm. Asked about this by journalists in the Sejm on Friday, the head of the president’s office, Zbigniew Bogucki, did not give a direct answer. However, he admitted that the parliamentary majority could have filled the Tribunal “step by step, in accordance with the constitution.”
“But you did not want to do it because a Constitutional Tribunal where you did not have a majority would not be under the boot of your government and your prime minister. Now you see an opportunity to seize the Tribunal within 48 hours and appoint anyone – as long as it is fast and as long as they are your candidates. The president certainly will not allow this,” he said.
Nevertheless, Waldemar Żurek, the minister of justice, also stated in the Sejm on Friday that “the president will administer the oath to the judges next week.”
“I appeal to the president not to try to break the constitution. The parliament elects the judges of the Tribunal. The president is to receive the oath and has the obligation to do so without delay (…). If the president does not receive the oath, we will implement Plan B,” Żurek declared.
Under the law, the president has no fixed deadline to receive the oath from judges. Do they also have a “Plan B” for that?
According to Radio Zet, Żurek reportedly addressed President Karol Nawrocki with a kind of pressing “ultimatum” – either administer the oaths within a week or face “Plan B.”
“We have a plan of action in case the president wants to break the constitution. I promise you that if in a week the president does not take the steps he is constitutionally obliged to take, we will show everyone what Plan B is,” the broadcaster quotes the justice minister as saying.
The report adds that the minister of justice has not yet disclosed details of the so-called Plan B. According to unofficial information cited by Radio Zet, one option under consideration is for the judges to take the oath before a notary and then submit the relevant documents to the president, or to organize a ceremony in the Sejm.
Żurek also reportedly stated that “this is a political body acting on the orders of one party, which files a motion one day and immediately has a hearing scheduled. This is a farce. I hope we will renew this institution and restore the Tribunal to the citizens.”