President Karol Nawrocki appointed the judicial assessors in late July without first obtaining the prime minister’s signature. Tusk signed the documents at the Prime Minister's Office in Warsaw.
Judicial assessors are junior judicial officers who may hear cases while preparing for appointment as judges. Tusk said his signature would allow the assessors to begin work legally and prevent challenges to rulings they issue.
The group could handle between 10,000 and 11,000 cases each month, he said. Without a valid countersignature, parties could question whether decisions made by the assessors were legally binding.
Tusk accused Nawrocki and the Constitutional Tribunal of forming what he called a “political conspiracy” to circumvent the constitution.
“The tragedy of this situation is that two institutions responsible for protecting and respecting the constitution have formed something resembling a political conspiracy to violate it,” he said.
Under Poland’s constitution, most official presidential acts require the prime minister’s countersignature. This signature confirms that the government accepts political responsibility for the decision. A limited list of presidential powers can be exercised without it.
The dispute began after the Constitutional Tribunal ruled on June 25 that appointing judicial assessors was closely connected to the president’s independent power to appoint judges. It concluded that the appointments did not require the prime minister’s signature.
Nawrocki relied on that ruling when he presented the appointment documents on July 28.
The government disputes the legitimacy of the current Constitutional Tribunal and does not recognize the legal effect of its rulings. Its judgments have not been published in the Journal of Laws since lawmakers adopted a resolution challenging the tribunal’s operation in March 2024.
Tusk said the tribunal, led by Bogdan Święczkowski, had responded favorably to a request from the president and issued its decision in an improperly constituted panel.
The appointment documents were later returned by court presidents to the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), which forwarded them to the prime minister.
In a July 29 statement, the council said presidential acts that are not expressly listed among the president’s independent constitutional powers require the prime minister’s countersignature.
It said Nawrocki’s appointments would become effective once Tusk signed them.
Tusk described this procedure as a “Solomonic solution” that protected the assessors from the political and constitutional dispute.
He said previous presidents, including Andrzej Duda, had routinely submitted similar documents for countersignature.
“No one had any doubt that, under the constitution and the principles of our political system, such official presidential decisions also required the prime minister’s signature,” Tusk said.
He added that the assessors had trained at the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution to work in the courts, rather than become involved in “political wrestling.”
“They have become victims of this rather mean and petty game,” he said.
Zbigniew Kapiński, the first president of the Supreme Court, has rejected the National Council of the Judiciary’s position.
He said requiring a countersignature was unfair to the assessors and argued that the prime minister should not have political influence over their appointment when the prime minister does not participate in appointing fully protected judges.
Tusk said Nawrocki’s decision formed part of an attempt to change Poland’s system of government without amending the constitution. He said such changes would require a formal constitutional amendment and that the existing constitution remained binding.
(rt)
Source: IAR, PAP