Authorities appeal to president to consult on Tribunal

The bill was passed by the Senate at around 4:00 am CET on Thursday 24 December following some nine hours of debate.

In a letter to President Andrzej Duda, the ombudsman emphasised that serious allegations of non-compliance with the Constitution were addressed in the amendment bill which was passed by both houses of the Polish parliament.

In recent weeks hundreds of thousands of Poles took to the streets around Poland to voice their disapproval of the way the government has acted towards choosing new judges on the Constitutional Tribunal.

Prime Minister Beata Szydło expressed hopes that this legislation might end the ongoing conflict over the Tribunal, which began following the election of five new judges by the PO controlled parliament in early October, ahead of the 25 October general election in which PiS won a majority.

The new parliament revoked these judges and chose another five, who were promptly sworn in by President Andrzej Duda, a former member of PiS. The Constitutional Tribunal later ruled that two of the five judges elected under PO had been elected unconstitutionally, though the other three elections were constitutional.

The opposition parties PO, PSL and Modern Poland believe that the President should swear in the three judges who were constitutionally elected, a solution which has also been proposed by the Tribunal’s President TK Andrzej Rzepliński. (rg)