Riot police deployed to Poland’s constitutional court after judge suspended

Riot police were locked in a tense standoff with protesters outside Poland’s constitutional court on Friday night after its top judge was suspended in the latest escalation in a decade-long dispute over the court’s legal status.

The clashes followed a controversial decision by a group of government-appointed judges to suspend the court’s contested president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, amid disagreements over the bench’s legitimacy.

Fellow Freepers,

Greetings from Poland. This is a constitutional crisis/showdown in Poland. As the story unfolds, I will try to give as concise a synopsis as I can. I did use Duck.AI to assist in looking up details and am employing my best educated understanding in discerning the quality of the results.

According to the Polish Constitution, the executive powers are split between the Prime Minister and the President. There is bicameral legislative branch with Sejm and Senate. There is a 15 judge Constitutional Tribunal (individual 9 year terms) which decides constitutional issues.
The real power in selecting and electing the Prime Minister is Sejm. The Polish Senate has no role in the process.
The President is popularly elected and can select a PM which the Sejm can approve, elect one of its own choosing. This is the current case where PM Tusk (Civic Platform Party –and allied with the EU) was elected by the Sejm and President Nawrocki (Ph.D. & boxer) of the Law & Justice Party (a Trump ally).

The executive powers split:
• Prime Minister and government: The Council of Ministers conducts domestic and foreign policy, manages government administration, implements laws, and handles matters not assigned to another state body. The Prime Minister leads that Council, coordinates ministers, and oversees government administration. The government is politically accountable to the Sejm.
• President: The President is the state’s elected representative and guarantor of continuity, and has constitutional duties concerning the Constitution, sovereignty and security. The President also has specific powers, including signing or vetoing bills, referring legislation to the Constitutional Tribunal, and appointing judges where the Constitution provides for it. The President swears in the Sejm-elected judges appoints the chief judge. Many presidential acts require the Prime Minister’s countersignature, but some—including a legislative veto and appointments of judges—do not.

Apparently, what has occurred is there are five judges who were elected to the Constitutional Tribunal by the Sejm, but the President is refusing to swear them in because there are legitimate questions on the validity of their elections. (Validity of election disputes for these judges has occurred in the past and been resolved constitutionally.)

Last night when President Nawrocki was flying to Senegal for an Olympic related sporting event, PM Tusk took control of the Constitutional Tribunal building, stated that he was seating the five new judges. In the process, the PM and the Tribunal stated that they appointed a new chief judge. Tusk has been frustrated by the Tribunals refusal to accept EU measures for Poland.

President Nawrocki turned around mid-flight and arrived at the building around 1 am. Police and crowds have surrounded the building. There was some pushing and shoving as Nawrocki entered the building. The last report I have heard said he was still in the building with the Tribunal.

From my read of the Polish Constitution, the PM has clearly overstepped his authorities. While there is a legal process to remove justices for wrong doing, neither the Sejm, the PM, nor the President have the authority to remove any judges. Only the President has the authority to appoint the Chief Judge.

One of the key questions in crisis like this is were the Army and the police stand. I double checked their oaths, and they do swear allegiance to the Constitution of the Republic but there always the questions of their understanding of their oaths and who has the constitutional authorities.

We will have to wait and see how things work out. Prayers up for Poland –America’s oldest and most loyal ally!

That was a different election, where Nawrocki won the Presidency over the liberal mayor of Warsaw.

The prime minister has more day-to-day power. The president is head of state with real but mostly checking powers.

Prime minister: Leads the Council of Ministers, which runs government policy and the administration, proposes ministers, and must keep the confidence of the Sejm (the lower house). Most domestic policy and the budget go through this office.

President: Is elected directly, serves as commander-in-chief, represents Poland abroad, and appoints the prime minister after consultations. The main tool is the veto, which the Sejm can override with a three-fifths majority. The president can also refer laws to the Constitutional Tribunal and call referendums with Senate consent.

It’s not that clean cut left vs right

Poland has a number of parties: Tusk leads PO which is in coalition with PSL, Poland 2050 and ex communists.

PO is economically liberal but increasingly center, welfare central, patriotically slightly left of center and socially now left (liberal). They were wishy washy on immigration but recently have been anti immigration. They are staunchly pro eu

Trzecia droga or 3rd way is an alliance of PSL and Polska 2050 :

PSL are basically: we’ll do anything to stay in government with some minor ministerial roles so we can keep the money coming in. Technically they were the farmers party. Now they are just out for the money. They are socially conservative and agrarian Christian-democrats. They act as a “handbrake” in Tusk’s coalition, blocking liberal abortion laws and civil unions. they rely heavily on EU agricultural subsidies for their rural base and are pro-EU, though culturally conservative and anti immigration.

Polska 2050 are Catholeftists who are socially slightly left of center, economically slightly right of center and make patriotic noises occasionally. They are pro-EU center-right Christian democrats. Economically, they push lower taxes for small businesses (anti-big welfare).

The left, lewica, are the old communist party of Poland. They look for money for their families and are socially legit pro abortion pro immigration. They are unequivocally pro-EU, pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ+, and support progressive immigration and strong public housing/labor programs.

In opposition we have prawo i sprawiedliwość IE PiS who are socially conservative, make patriotic noises, are economically left with big welfare, are vocally anti immigration but in practice are quietly mildly pro immigration. They are anti LGBT and anti abortion so if I have no choice I hold my nose and vote for them. They are eurosceptic. They ran on fierce anti-migrant rhetoric, yet during their 8 years in office, they quietly issued record numbers of work visas to non-EU foreign workers to plug labor shortages (which fueled the cash-for-visas scandal).

There is also Konfederacja is an alliance of libertarian free-market radicals (Nowa Nadzieja) and extreme national-conservatives (Ruch Narodowy). They favor radical tax cuts, state deregulation, zero illegal immigration, and hard Euroscepticism coalition of rightish parties. Socially conservative, really patriotic in word and deed, anti immigration, anti abortion anti LGBT. They are eurosceptic. I generally vote for them.

Then you have Braun party, which is anti left, makes patriotic noises but stridently anti semitic and Braun is a loud agitator I can’t stand. Grzegorz Braun leads the Konfederacja Korony Polskiej (Confederation of the Polish Crown). Braun is a notorious far-right monarchist agitator, who does blatantly anti-Semitic acts (e.g., using a fire extinguisher on a Hanukkah menorah in the Sejm), anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, and aggressive pro-Russian talking points

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