Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledges to restore the rule of law after right-wing PiS supporters protest outside the Constitutional Tribunal.
WARSAW: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday pledged a return to the rule of law, following protests outside Poland’s highest court by right-wing supporters of a judicial overhaul carried out by the previous government.
The protests follow a years-long rule-of-law crisis gripping Warsaw’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK), which began when the then-ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party launched sweeping changes to the judiciary that were condemned by Poland’s current government and European courts.
“The Polish state has been functioning for far too long without a properly elected Constitutional Tribunal,” Tusk said in a video statement on X, adding “we will be restoring legal and constitutional order using the methods available to the state”.
The pro-European prime minister insisted that the “Warsaw local authorities, the police, all the services (and) the prosecutor’s office” would act “to make the rule of law once again… Polish everyday reality”.
Wednesday’s demonstrators, who have repeatedly rallied outside the court, included several lawmakers from the former ruling PiS party as well as members of the conservative Gazeta Polska Clubs association.
Waving Polish flags and singing patriotic songs, some protesters erected metal barriers outside the court in an attempt to stop judges from entering before the police dismantled them.
A brief scuffle broke out as officers intervened, with police forcibly removing several protesters, local media reported.
Tusk’s government does not recognise the tribunal’s rulings, arguing it has remained loyal to the PiS.
‘Unlawful’
In 2015, the PiS appointed openly political judges to the tribunal. The parliament ignored appointments made under the previous administration, illegally naming three judges in their place.
The European Court of Human Rights condemned the move in 2021, ruling the bench “unlawful”.
After returning to power following the 2023 election, Tusk’s government pledged to resolve the crisis.
However, conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki has yet to confirm its nominations to the court.
The Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, said Tuesday that “the President should administer without delay the oath of the judges elected by the Sejm (parliament), without claiming any power to review the election procedure”.
On Wednesday morning, judge Maciej Berek, who was elected to the tribunal in early September, took an oath in parliament in the presence of several government officials.
Nawrocki was not present at the ceremony and has not invited Berek to formally take the oath of office.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the president said “if he failed to carry out that formality… then he is most definitely not a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal”, in comments criticised by figures from Tusk’s government.
Addressing protesters outside the court, Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal’s PiS-linked president, insisted that Berek would not be allowed to sit on cases before “receiving a response from the president”.
The prime minister however said that “newly elected judges will be able to count on protection from the state and will soon be able to begin regular work at the Constitutional Tribunal”.