Stalemate in TK. The president does not recognize the oath, the judges are threatening to sue

Anna Korwin-Piotrowska – one of the four judges of the Constitutional Tribunal who were not allowed to work at the Constitutional Tribunal – announced on Thursday that they would probably file a lawsuit with the labor court to allow them to work. She also declared that she would report to work at the Tribunal.

On Thursday, during a ceremony in the Sejm, six judges of the Constitutional Tribunal elected in March took their oaths. They were submitted by two judges who had already been sworn in by President Karol Nawrocki, i.e. Dariusz Szostek and Magdalena Bentkowska, as well as four others: Krystian Markiewicz, Maciej Taborowski, Marcin Dziurda and Anna Korwin-Piotrowska. Then, at the KPRP reception office, they submitted written oaths to the president, and after submitting the documents to the Chancellery of the President, everyone went to the seat of the Constitutional Tribunal.

Korwin-Piotrowska reported the visit to the CT on Thursday on TVN24. As she said, the four judges submitted to the Constitutional Tribunal their declarations of assets and other documents necessary to take up work, and each of them was invited to an individual meeting with the President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Święczkowski.

As she reported, Święczkowski hoped that President Karol Nawrocki would invite the four judges and receive their oaths; he also said – which he later repeated at a press conference – that until he receives information from the Chancellery of the President about the effective taking of the oath by four judges, he will not guarantee them conditions for performing their work.

Korwin-Piotrowska said that – in her opinion – she effectively took the oath. She also declared that, together with other judges, she would report to work at the Constitutional Tribunal and expressed the expectation that the President of the Tribunal would assign offices to the judges and guarantee working conditions.

She also announced that judges will most likely take steps that “seem to be the only ones that will be effective.” – We will probably file a lawsuit with the labor court to allow us to perform these activities – she announced. She noted that judges of the Constitutional Tribunal are associated with the institution, among others. a service relationship, a “typical employee relationship”. – We believe that we have the right to go to court.

The judge was also asked whether she had resigned from her position as a judge in the common court. She answered in the negative and noted that the regulations do not impose such an obligation on a judge who assumes the function of a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal. – Likewise, they do not require resigning from the office of a judge of a common court when taking up the office of a judge of the Supreme Court. The practice was that common court judges who took up positions in the Supreme Court did not resign from their positions, she said.

However, she declared that after being allowed to work at the Constitutional Tribunal by the President of the Tribunal, if “practical considerations” require it, she is ready to resign from her position as president of the District Court in Opole.

During the evening press conference, the head of the KPRP, Zbigniew Bogucki, said that President Nawrocki “does not in any way consider what happened today in the Sejm as an oath.” He also announced that in the coming days the president would submit a request to the Constitutional Tribunal to resolve the dispute over competences between the president and the Sejm regarding what had happened in recent days around the oath of office of Constitutional Tribunal judges.

Deputy Minister of Justice Maria Ejchart emphasized that no act had been violated in any way. – Today, the oath was taken in the Sejm in a different form – in accordance with the law – she said. (PAP)

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