Dean Wiseman

🇵🇱 Confused about WTF is going on in Poland? You're not alone Yesterday, judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska took it upon herself to suspend the leadership of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal She issued written orders placing Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski and Vice-President Bartłomiej Sochański on a one-month “immediate break in official duties” and announced she was taking charge as the longest-serving judge She justified this by arguing they had blocked newly elected judges from sitting, prevented the General Assembly from meeting (needed for the 2027 budget), and violated rules on assigning cases The real reason is a spat over appointees to the court that President Nawrocki is refusing to accept. It's basically a fight over who controls the court - the left or right - with both sides claiming to act to make sure it's politically independent I know, ironic, right Her reasoning is that provisions in the 2016 Act on the Organization and Procedure before the Constitutional Tribunal state that the longest-serving judge can substitute for the President in certain situations when the President cannot designate a replacement According to her, he cannot designate a replacement because she suspended him She also claimed that Article 130 of the Law on the System of Common Courts permits a court president to order an immediate break in a judge’s duties for up to one month if the authority of the court or essential service interests require it (or if the judge is caught committing an intentional crime) It's widely viewed as invalid because the Constitutional Tribunal has its own statute and is independent under the Constitution (Article 173) Ordinary-court rules on temporary suspension of presidents do not automatically transfer, and experts have called the claimed basis “non-existent” The Act on the Constitutional Tribunal does not provide for one judge unilaterally suspending the President this way Korwin-Piotrowska herself is one of the judges elected by the current Sejm majority whose swearing-in President Nawrocki refused The Justice Minister (who also serves as Prosecutor General) separately sought to lift the leaders’ immunity for prosecution, but he has no general supervisory power over the Tribunal the way he does over ordinary courts The timing is wild too. She executed the move when President Nawrocki was on his way to Senegal He turned his plane around mid-air, came back, and then had to force his way past a cordon of riot police to enter the Constitutional Court to try and resolve the chaos Expect this one to get even more complicated and tense as both sides fight to exert control over Poland's highest court Writer: Ian