President Nawrocki goes to the Constitutional Tribunal. Will the “chutzpah and clowning” in the Sejm end in the Tribunal?

This week, President Karol Nawrocki will submit a request to the Constitutional Tribunal to resolve the competence dispute regarding the oath of office of Constitutional Tribunal judges in the Sejm, informed the head of the Chancellery of the President, Zbigniew Bogucki.

Bogucki announced on Republika TV on Monday that the president will submit a request to the Constitutional Tribunal this week to resolve the competence dispute regarding the oath of office of judges in the Sejm. – That is, was it possible to carry out this chutzpah, clowning that took place in the Sejm and call it an oath – specified the head of the KPRP. He assured that the president was “absolutely aware that this cannot be done.” But the president – as Bogucki said – “is a statesman and follows the path of the constitution.”

He was also asked what decision the president would make if the ruling turns out that the oath of office of the four judges was unconstitutional. The head of the KPRP replied that in this case we should wait for the ruling, although here there is the issue of “impeccable character” and – as he said – “these people chose an illegal path.”

He added that some of these people were “very politically involved” and, as he said, “there is a certain level of ridiculousness that these judges (…) have exceeded.” – I think that the president has never participated in clowning, because here cabaret is too mild a word – added the head of KRPR.

On the same day, on wPolsce24, the President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Święczkowski, assured that the Tribunal would resolve the competence dispute regarding the swearing in of judges if the president sends such a request. – If such a dispute arises, the Tribunal will certainly look into it and decide whether the event that took place in the Polish Sejm had any legal significance or whether it had no legal significance, and who is authorized to take this oath before the president – said Święczkowski.

– I have no doubt that these issues will be quickly clarified by the Tribunal as soon as the full bench of the Constitutional Tribunal meets, and the president took the oath of office from two people elected as judges and at the moment the Tribunal has 11 judges, so there is a full bench – he explained.

The President of the Constitutional Tribunal also informed that he had also asked Nawrocki to indicate whether the event that took place in the Sejm meant that the judges had taken an oath before the president. – I'm waiting for an answer – he added.

Święczkowski also assured that if it is found that the judges took the oath correctly, he will allow the judges to work at the Constitutional Tribunal.

The point is that on March 13, the Sejm elected six judges of the Constitutional Tribunal. At the invitation of President Karol Nawrocki, two judges elected by the Sejm took the oath in the Presidential Palace. Representatives of the KPRP said that the situation of the remaining four was being analyzed because, according to the presidential office, there were mistakes in the Sejm.

Then, on April 9, during a ceremony in the Parliament's Column Hall, these four judges took the oath stating that they were doing so “in front of the president”, and two Constitutional Tribunal judges who had already taken it in the president's presence also took the oath again. Then, everyone submitted written oaths to the president at the reception office of the Chancellery of the President.

Two judges, Dariusz Szostek and Magdalena Bentkowska, took office at the Constitutional Tribunal on the same day. The president of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Święczkowski, said that the four remaining people – Krystian Markiewicz, Maciej Taborowski, Marcin Dziurda and Anna Korwin-Piotrowska – did not take office because the events in the Sejm with their participation could not be considered an oath “towards the president”.

Krystian Markiewicz informed that he and three other judges had submitted a letter to the President of the Constitutional Tribunal requesting that they be allowed to perform their official duties. (PAP)

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