Polish President Nawrocki Faces Down Judicial Power Grab at Constitutional Tribunal
Polish President Karol Nawrocki looked Anna Korwin-Piotrowska in the eye and told her the plain truth: she is not a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal. He never swore her in, and that is the end of the matter.
Korwin-Piotrowska, one of the judges elected by the current parliamentary majority whose appointments Nawrocki has refused to recognize, moved to suspend the Tribunal’s sitting president and vice-president for a month and declared herself in temporary charge.
The move came amid a years-long fight over the court that began with earlier judicial reforms and has continued under Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government, which has sought to reverse those changes while Nawrocki has blocked the seating of new judges he does not accept.
Nawrocki cut short an official trip, returned to Warsaw, and went to the Tribunal building overnight. There he confronted the situation directly, insisting that Korwin-Piotrowska and the other unsworn appointees have no authority. The confrontation has drawn protests outside the court, police presence, and sharp accusations from both sides about who is violating the constitutional order.
Nawrocki’s position is straightforward: the president’s role in the appointment process is not optional, and a judge the president has never sworn in cannot seize control of the Tribunal.- DTP