President Karol Nawrocki called urgent consultations with representatives of parliamentary parties for Saturday 31 October following the escalation of a dispute over the leadership of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal on 30 October, Polsat News reports. Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Szymon Hołownia were among those who said they would attend. Supporters of Law and Justice (PiS) gathered outside the Tribunal’s Warsaw headquarters, where police were deployed.
According to the BBC, police were stationed outside the Tribunal to prevent demonstrators from entering the building. Their deployment comes amid a conflict over who has the authority to run the institution, with the opposing sides offering conflicting legal assessments of the actions taken.
Leadership suspension faces challenge
Euronews reports that Anna Korwin-Piotrowska ordered the suspension of Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski and vice-president Bartłomiej Sochański from their duties for one month on 30 October, then took over management of the institution. She said the move was necessary to restore its functioning and allow judges elected by the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, to hear cases. The existing leadership rejected the decision as unlawful.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk publicly defended the actions as restoring the rule of law. The Tribunal’s leadership, by contrast, described them as a coup. These are the positions of the parties to the dispute, not a legal determination of whether the actions were lawful.
The BBC also reports that Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek requested the lifting of Święczkowski’s and Sochański’s immunity so that they could face charges relating to the exclusion of elected judges from hearing cases. The request itself does not mean that immunity has been lifted, an indictment filed or guilt established.
President calls consultations
Nawrocki visited the Tribunal’s headquarters and, according to Polsat News, spent the night there. His consultations scheduled for Saturday are intended to bring together representatives of parliamentary parties. Kosiniak-Kamysz said he would raise national security, respect for democracy, social peace and public order. The broadcaster also reports that Hołownia and opposition representatives said they would attend.
A further planned step within the Tribunal is a General Assembly of its judges. According to Euronews, Korwin-Piotrowska announced that she would convene it on 3 November. Both the political consultations and the judicial meeting remain planned events at this stage; their proceedings and outcomes are not yet known.
