WARSAW, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Poland’s parliament voted on Friday to make an ex-cabinet member known as Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s “right-hand man” a leading judge, in a move critics, including within Tusk’s coalition, said undermined government claims it is restoring checks and balances.
The appointment to the Constitutional Tribunal of Maciej Berek, who until August was Minister for Government Policy Implementation, created tension in the ruling coalition, which has vowed to reform a judicial system it says became politicised under the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) administration.
Tusk says that Berek is “competent, brave (and) selfless”, making him the best man for the job of fixing a court that has in effect ceased to function due to disputes over its composition between the government and PiS ally President Karol Nawrocki.
However, critics including members of left-wing and centre-right parties in government say the appointment displays hypocrisy, especially as this government itself tried to pass legislation in 2024 that would have stopped politicians moving directly into judicial posts.
“We were supposed to be different from PiS, we were supposed to do things differently, not exactly the same,” Anna Maria Zukowska, a lawmaker from the Left party, said in August.
‘REVOLVING DOOR’
Jakub Jaraczewski, Senior Research Coordinator at NGO Democracy Reporting International, called the appointment “a mistake”.
“Politicians should not be entering the tribunal like it was a revolving door between politics and the judiciary,” he told Reuters.
Berek has rejected such criticism.
“The actions taken by the… coalition are aimed at restoring everything to the way it is envisioned in the constitution,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Prosecutors said on Thursday they wanted to question Nawrocki as a witness as part of an investigation into what they say is the unlawful prevention of judges appointed to the Constitutional Tribunal from taking up their posts.
In April, Nawrocki only agreed to hear two out of six judges nominated by parliament swear their oath of office, effectively blocking the remaining four.
He later heard a third take his oath, but the judge in question refused to start adjudicating at the Tribunal in protest at the treatment of the three remaining judges.
Nawrocki said on Thursday that he had doubts about Berek’s candidacy and that “the last thing the Constitutional Tribunal needs right now is another politician”. He added he had not made a final decision about the appointment.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
