Małgorzata Manowska goes to the Constitutional Tribunal. The end of Tusk's signature on the president's decisions?

The first president of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska, appealed to the Constitutional Tribunal about the requirement for the prime minister's countersignature in the president's decisions regarding filling positions in the justice system – e.g. when appointing a judge to head the General Assembly of the Supreme Court when selecting candidates for the president. The countersignature paralyzes the justice system, she said.

The Supreme Court announced in a statement on Friday that it had submitted a complaint to the Constitutional Tribunal on January 20.

“First of all, the legal norm resulting from the provisions of the Act on the Supreme Court was challenged, which makes the validity of the appointment by the President of the Republic of Poland of a Supreme Court judge as the chairman of the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Court, which selects candidates for the position of the First President of the Supreme Court, dependent on the signature of the Prime Minister,” it was reported. Such an appointment is necessary when the First President of the Supreme Court cannot chair the meeting or when his candidacy has been proposed.

The complaint also includes the requirement for the Prime Minister's countersignature in the procedure of electing the chairmen of the judges' assemblies, which elect the presidents of individual chambers of the Supreme Court. As justified, such a requirement “prevents the selection of candidates for the position of the President of the Supreme Court managing the work of the Chamber of Labor and Social Insurance, which has remained vacant since September 3, 2024.”

In addition, the complaint concerns the requirement for the Prime Minister's countersignature in the event of the president entrusting a Supreme Court judge with the management of the Supreme Court in the event of the position of the first president becoming vacant and when the president appoints Supreme Court judges “to adjudicate in the Chamber of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court, as well as when appointing judicial assessors in common courts and provincial administrative courts.”

On Monday evening on Republika TV Manowska indicated as a key legal problem the situation in which the Prime Minister's countersignature is missing, required when appointing a judge heading the General Assembly of Supreme Court Judges. in a situation where the incumbent first president himself is a candidate. In such a case, the president must appoint another Supreme Court judge; his decision requires the prime minister's countersignature, which – Manowska said – in accordance with current practice, the head of government does not grant it.

Will Manowska run for another term?

When asked whether she would run for another term as the First President of the Supreme Court after the current term ends on May 26, Manowska replied that she had “very mixed feelings” on this matter, and due to numerous obstacles, she assessed her chances of running as minimal.

When announcing her complaint to the Constitutional Tribunal, Manowska said that she did not intend to become dependent on the Prime Minister's decision or expose the Supreme Court to organizational paralysis resulting from the long wait for a countersignature. As she said then, the executive power should not block the functioning of the justice system or the president's prerogatives.

According to the provisions of the Act on the Supreme Court, candidates for the First President of the Supreme Court are selected by the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Court. As a rule, the work of this assembly is managed by the acting First President of the Supreme Court. However, if the current first president seeks reappointment, then – in accordance with the law – the presidency of the General Assembly is taken over by a Supreme Court judge who is not a candidate for this position and who is appointed by the president.

However, the president's act in this respect has the nature of an official act and as such requires the countersignature of the Prime Minister. This obligation results from the fact that the decision to appoint a judge to preside over the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Court is not mentioned in Art. 144 section 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which defines a closed set (catalog) of official acts of the president that do not require the countersignature of the prime minister.

The rules for selecting candidates for the position of the First President of the Supreme Court also apply to the election of candidates for the president of a specific chamber. The Supreme Court's announcement on Friday stated that the requirement for the Prime Minister's countersignature currently makes it impossible to select candidates for the position of president of the Chamber of Labor and Social Insurance, which has remained vacant since September 2024.

In September 2024, the term of office of the last president of this Chamber, Piotr Prusinowski, ended – a judge elected by the National Council of the Judiciary before the changes in 2018. However, by the end of his term, candidates for the new president of the Chamber were not elected, because Prusinowski did not convene an assembly of judges to elect them. Pursuant to the provision introduced into the Act on the Supreme Court during the PiS government, if the candidates for the president of the chamber were not elected in accordance with the rules, the president shall immediately entrust the performance of the duties of the president of a given chamber to a Supreme Court judge designated by him.

Then-President Andrzej Duda addressed such a decision to Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The information that appeared at that time showed that the judge whose name was in the decision was appointed after 2018, i.e. after changes made by the PiS government to the provisions on the National Council of the Judiciary. Prime Minister Tusk then announced that he would not countersign the president's decision, which, according to him, was another attempt to “legalize the situation with neo-judges.” Later it was announced that President Manowska authorized judge Dawid Miąsik (appointed to the Supreme Court in procedures before 2018) to manage the work of the Chamber of Labor and Social Insurance, and last summer made a change and authorized Judge Agnieszka Góra-Błaszczykowska to adjudicate in the Supreme Court from 2023.

At the end of August 2024, Prime Minister Tusk countersigned President Duda's decision, pursuant to which Judge Krzysztof Wesołowski, appointed to the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court in March 2022 (selected to the Supreme Court in a procedure by the National Council of the Judiciary amended during the PiS government) – was appointed chairman of the meeting of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court. This aroused protests in the legal community because Wesołowski was appointed by the so-called neo-KRS. The Prime Minister soon admitted that the countersignature was the result of an error. He explained that the head of the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, Maciej Berek, did not notice the “political nature” of the nomination when preparing this document. Then the head of government announced that he had withdrawn his countersignature regarding the appointment of Judge Wesołowski. (PAP)

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