Controversy as Polish PM “revokes signature” from judicial appointment
Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has faced criticism from the opposition and legal experts after he announced that he was “revoking” his signature from a judicial appointment that he said he had made “by mistake” last month.
Two weeks ago, the prime minister provided a counter-signature to approve a decision by opposition-aligned President Andrzej Duda to appoint a judge as chair of an assembly that would choose a new head of the Supreme Court’s civil chamber.
That came as a surprise because the judge in question, Krzysztof Andrzej Wesołowski, is one of what Tusk’s government and its supporters call “neo-judges”, meaning that they were appointed after the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party’s overhaul of the judiciary.
The current government regard such judges as illegitimate because the body responsible for nominating them, the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), was overhauled in a manner that various European and Polish court rulings have found rendered it no longer a legitimate body.
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Shortly after news of his counter-signature emerged, Tusk declared that “very clearly a mistake has occurred”. Had he refused to sign the document, Wesołowski would not have been appointed.
The prime minister explained that he signs “hundreds of documents”, sometimes “dozens a day”. In this case, “the official responsible for preparing the signing did not notice the political nature of the document which determined the nomination of the new judge by the president”.
This morning, two of the “old” judges on the Supreme Court’s civil chamber, who refuse to recognise the legitimacy of the “neo-judges”, confirmed that they had filed a legal complaint against Duda and Tusk’s decision to nominate Wesołowski.
A few hours later, Tusk announced on social media that, “based on the complaint of the judges of the civil chamber of the Supreme Court, I have decided to revoke the countersignature”.
W oparciu o skargę sędziów Izby Cywilnej Sądu Najwyższego podjąłem decyzję o uchyleniu kontrasygnaty.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) September 9, 2024
That decision sparked a wave of condemnation from PiS, which is now the main opposition party.
“This is yet further evidence of [the government] breaking the law,” declared PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. “There is no legal procedure that allows for this.”
Some legal experts also rejected Tusk’s move. “There is no legal possibility for the prime minister to…withdraw his countersignature,” Jacek Zaleśny, a scholar of constitutional law at the University of Warsaw told Business Insider Polska.
“If the prime minister later changed his mind, it has no [legal] significance” after the act in question has taken place, he added. “The official act…was already issued in legally prescribed conditions and with legally binding effects.”
No to przypomnijmy sobie, co mówią – życzliwi rządowi DT- prawnicy.
– Przepisy w procedurze konstytucyjnej nie przewidują takiego postępowania – prof. Marek Chmaj
– Nie ma możliwości wycofania kontrasygnaty (…) – prof. Grzegorz Krawiechttps://t.co/i5NXd9UHtR
— Wojciech Wybranowski (@wybranowski) September 9, 2024
Marek Chmaj, another constitutional scholar and former deputy head of the State Tribunal, likewise told legal news service Prawo.pl that there are no legal provisions providing for the withdrawal of such a counter-signature and that introducing them would risk “causing chaos”.
Andrzej Zoll, a former chief justice of Poland’s constitutional court, told broadcaster TVN that “there is no basis in the legal system, especially in the constitution, for withdrawing a countersignature”.
The Supreme Court’s spokesman, Aleksander Stępkowski (who is himself a “neo-judge”), announced today that he regards Tusk’s decision as having no legal force and that the electoral assembly headed by Wesołowsk would meet tomorrow as planned to begin the process of choosing a new head of the civil chamber.
Rzecznik SN: Zgromadzenie Izby Cywilnej odbędzie się we wtorek niezależnie od ataku premiera na niezależność Sądu Najwyższego https://t.co/xWZFRUCfsi
— Radio Maryja (@RadioMaryja) September 9, 2024
However, earlier today, before Tusk had announced the withdrawal of his signature, justice minister Adam Bodnar told broadcaster TVP that “it is possible to make a self-correction of a decision made earlier”.
In Tusk’s coalition government that took power in December, Bodnar has been tasked with leading efforts to undo the overhaul of the judiciary implemented by PiS, which is widely seen to have politicised some institutions and rendered some courts and judges illegitimate.
In April, the government’s parliamentary majority approved legislation to undo PiS’s reform of the KRS. However, it faces a likely veto from PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda.
In his interview with TVP today, Bodnar also revealed that the government is planning to return around 1,500 judges who were promoted by the PiS-reformed KRS to their old positions and launch disciplinary action against them.
Tak będzie wyglądało rozliczenie neosędziów. Adam Bodnar podał szczegóły. https://t.co/GKQDlDUAQd
— Beata Czuma (@BeataCzuma) September 9, 2024
Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
