President signs Constitutional Tribunal bill

The new legislation, which comes into force on the same day the president signed it on Monday, sees each Tribunal sitting to be made up at least thirteen of the fifteen judges. Prior to the amendment, each sitting needed at least nine judges.

Also, judgements will only be issued when the Tribunal has at least a two-thirds majority.

The makeup of the Tribunal is mostly made up of judges appointed by the governing PiS party just weeks after winning the 25 October general elections.

In press conference at noon on Monday, President Duda defended the decision to make the changes to the Constitutional Tribunal by the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, and called on politicians on both sides of the political spectrum to end the fight. He also asked political commentators to be objective.

The changes championed by PiS were heavily criticised by the opposition.

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.

Andrzej Duda is a former PiS MP and still has close links with the party. (rg)