Polish president vetoes amendment to judiciary council law
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has vetoed an amendment to the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) Act that would have provided for the judicial members of the Council to be elected by all judges.
The dispute over the KRS dates back to reforms introduced after 2017 under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, which shifted the election of the council's judicial members from judicial assemblies to parliament, drawing criticism for politicising the judiciary.
The current government has sought to reverse those changes as part of efforts to restore the rule of law and align Poland with EU standards, with the vetoed amendment aimed at returning the selection of judicial members to judges themselves.
"As president of the Republic of Poland, I have a duty to safeguard the constitution and look after the interests of citizens. The Act on the National Council of the Judiciary does not fulfil this purpose and in fact runs counter to it," Nawrocki, who is supported by PiS, said in a recording posted on X on Thursday.
"I cannot sign an act which, under the slogan of restoring the rule of law, in reality introduces a new stage of chaos and opens the door to political influence over judges," he added.
Explaining his decision, the president said the amendment "introduces segregation of judges and hands the justice system over to a political interest group."
"I strongly oppose dividing judges into better and worse ones, because in reality the government is seeking to divide them into judges who are ours and those who are not... Whether someone is a judge is determined by the constitution and statutes. The act is clearly unconstitutional and could be a tool to remove judges whom the current authorities fear," Nawrocki said.
Under the amendment, 15 judicial members of the KRS were to be elected in direct and secret ballots organised by the National Electoral Commission by all judges in Poland, instead of being chosen by the Sejm. Judges with at least 10 years of adjudicatory experience and five years at a given court would have been eligible to stand, a change that would also have allowed some judges appointed during the PiS rule to participate.
The changes were criticised by the opposition, mainly by the main opposition party, the socially conservative PiS, while the government and the Ministry of Justice argued that they would restore the council's constitutionality.
Asked by PAP for a comment, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek said that the president's arguments for the veto are untruthful.
According to Zurek, the decision to block the amendment will deepen the chaos in the justice system and lengthen ongoing legal proceedings. "Starting tomorrow the responsibility for delays in the courts falls on the president," he said. "He will have to face the people and tell them why proceedings during [former Justice Minister under PiS Zbigniew] Ziobro's term were prolonged."
"I will not back down from returning constitutional bodies to the citizens. We have a plan B and we will implement it," Zurek said. (PAP)
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