Polish parliament selects new judge for top court

After he is sworn in by the Polish president, Warciński will replace Andrzej Rzepliński, the current head of the Constitutional Tribunal, whose term ends on 19 December.

PiS nominee Warciński was supported by 231 MPs, 179 voted against him and five abstained from voting, but other parties did not put forward their own candidates.

PiS MP Bartłomiej Wróblewski said 37-year-old Warciński “is well educated, has significant academic achievements and interesting professional experience.”

But opposition Civic Platform (PO) party MP Borys Budka said ahead of the vote that his party would not support Warciński.

Budka said Warciński “is the author of an exceptionally unprofessional and even ridiculous legal opinion”, which claimed that in late 2015 the outgoing parliament’s selection of five judges was against regulations.

With three open spots on the tribunal and the terms of two more of its judges expiring shortly after the October 2015 parliamentary elections, the former PO government put forward its own candidates for the positions available ahead of the ballot.

However, PiS-backed Polish President Andrzej Duda refused to swear in any of the five candidates and when the conservative PiS took power after the elections, it put forward its own nominees instead.

This resulted in the two parties accusing each other of breaking the constitution, while the Constitutional Tribunal under Rzepliński’s leadership has been locked in an ongoing row with the governing PiS party. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP