Justice Aleksander Stępkowski was named as Duda’s new pick for acting First President of the Supreme Court to replace Kamil Zaradkiewicz, who resigned from the role a day earlier, the Polish president’s office said.
Stępkowski, 45, is expected to perform his duties until a new chief justice is selected on a permanent basis to fill a vacancy created by Małgorzata Gersdorf, who left office at the end of April after a six-year term.
Stępkowski is stepping in for Zaradkiewicz to preside over a general assembly of Supreme Court judges, who have convened to nominate five candidates for the Polish president to select from.
For now, the meeting has been inconclusive due to differences of opinion.
The latest presidential appointment comes amid a long-standing dispute and bitter wrangling over legal changes in Poland.
The changes have triggered a series of clashes between Warsaw and Brussels.
Earlier this year, senior Polish officials slammed a Supreme Court ruling that judges recently appointed by the country’s governing conservatives were illegitimate and should not be allowed to hear cases.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned at the time that if judges were allowed to question the appointment or verdicts of other judges, the Polish justice system could be engulfed by chaos.
At the end of last month, the European Union’s executive said it was opening a new legal case against Poland over disputed new rules to discipline judges, the latest step in a long-standing feud over alleged rule-of-law breaches.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR