The head of the president's office: maybe a veto on the rule of law act will not be necessary

Perhaps a veto on the so-called bill rule of law will not be needed at all – said the head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, Zbigniew Bogucki, on Sunday on Polsat News. He appealed to the Polish People's Party and Poland 2050 on this issue.

The minister referred to the so-called project presented on October 9 by the Ministry of Justice. Rule of Law Act. He was asked whether President Karol Nawrocki's veto against this bill was certain. – The president said in Tallinn that it is difficult to talk to a man who brutally violates the constitution and laws – he said.

– Maybe this veto won't be needed at all. I hope – and here is an appeal to more reasonable circles than the Civic Platform and probably more reasonable than the Left, for example to the Polish People's Party or to Poland 2050 – not to go down this path of “neo-rule of law”, brutal violation of the law, because we should solve this problem together, by formatting solutions that will ensure the rule of law, the absence of chaos, the stability of judgments, the irremovability of judges, the independence of these judges, independence. And this act does not do that, it deepens the conflict – said the head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland.

He called the Ministry of Justice's proposal a “pseudo-law” and “pseudo-rule of law”, which – in his opinion – devastates the Polish legal order.

According to Bogucki, Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek “behaves like an arsonist who comes to the scene of the fire and tries to add fuel to the fire.” Bogucki accused Żurek of “brutal interference with the rule of law and the judiciary” and the ruling team of wanting to manually indicate who should make judgments in a given case.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Justice presented a draft “rule of law” law. It provides for, among others: repetition of competitions for judicial positions filled in the procedure with the participation of the National Council of the Judiciary in its shape after 2017 and sorting out the status of “improperly appointed” judges.

– We want to show a compromise with this bill, because we want it to be signed and not thrown into the trash by the president – ​​assured Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, presenting the bill. At the same time, he asked President Karol Nawrocki and his advisors to “look very carefully” at the provisions of this project. According to the head of the Ministry of Justice, it will be a “compromise act that stabilizes the system.”

Żurek also appealed to MPs and senators – primarily those in opposition to the government. – Ladies and gentlemen, especially those from the opposition, please read the assumptions of this act (…). This is the best legal act on which we can vote together. I ask that the MPs' decisions be truly substantive – said the head of the Ministry of Justice.

President Karol Nawrocki emphasized at Friday's briefing that the proposals of the head of the Ministry of Justice, Waldemar Żurek, including the project of the so-called the “rule of law” act, will be analyzed in the Chancellery of the President. He noted, however, that “what Minister Żurek has done recently does not fill us with optimism.”

A week earlier, a regulation of the Minister of Justice amending the Regulations on the operation of common courts was announced in the Journal of Laws. The amendment applies, among others, to: to the issue of the functioning of the system of random assignment of cases to judges (SLPS). The provision added to the regulations states that “the chairman of the division may decide, if there is a need to improve the effectiveness of the division's work, that cases heard by a panel of three SLPS judges will be assigned to clerks, and the remaining two members of the panel will be appointed by the chairman of the division in accordance with the principles set out by the president of the court after seeking the opinion of the board of the competent court.” President Karol Nawrocki assessed this change in the regulation as an “ostentatious act of lawlessness” intended to “enable manual control of the selection of judges to suit the political needs and expectations of those in power.” (PAP)

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